Back in Their Day
by 9CatsIn6Hats
Summary: In their 7th year at Hogwarts Lily Evans and James Potter fall in love, the Marauders engage in all sorts of shenanigans, the Slytherins get pranked, and Lily Luna Potter must learn to live back in her grandparents' day. Time travel fic. POV Lily Luna. LE/JP, LLP/?
1. Primitive Ways of Magical Transportation

**A/N**: Hey guys! The basic idea in this story- time travel- is perhaps nothing new to Harry Potter fanfiction, but I really wanted to make my own to suit my tastes, so here it is!

If you like Lily Evans and the Marauders, I plan to have _plenty_ of them in there. It will also include some of our favorite Slytherins. But the main character is Lily Luna Potter, Harry's daughter, and the whole thing will be told from her POV. It's going to be a very long story, and I'm currently planning three parts (each probably over 50 chapters).

As far as genre goes, expect lots of romance (especially later on), humor, drama, mystery, and adventure.

**WARNING:** This is rated T for good reason. There'll be swearing, substance use, violence, and scenes of a sexual nature (probably not graphic enough to be rated M though).

**Disclaimer**: I claim not to claim, but to disclaim, and never reclaim, ownership of JKR's brilliant creations.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Primitive Ways of Magical Transportation<strong>

Outside, the October night was windy and cold when I curled up on my favorite window seat in the girls' dormitory, a red and gold blanket snugly wrapped around my shoulders. Even though it was a Friday, a library book lay on my knees, one I had recently borrowed for a project assigned in Ancient Runes class.

Normally, homework is the last thing you'd find me doing on a Friday night - I'd much rather start a weekend by going out to Hogsmeade with my mates or something - but that day I made an exception. Not only were Emily and Hugo nowhere to be found, but I was also just in the mood for some lazy time and sitting around, after a couple cold hours of Quidditch practice. And there was something intriguing about this particular book that made me want to examine it.

True I'd only gotten it for the assignment, and it was written in old Norse runes so reading it was a pain. But there was still something in the way the thing looked that made me select it as the night's reading material, instead of the stack of old _Witch Weekly_s piled on my bedside table. Its brown leather cover was ornately decorated with swirling designs, and the text inside looked carefully handwritten on the thick, yellowed parchment. Plus, it had come from the Restricted Section. That fact made it all the more interesting. I seriously doubted it was actually dangerous since it wasn't anywhere near the Dark Arts books; it was probably just there because of its age. The key rune in its title translated to something like "portals" or "connections" so it seemed to be pretty relevant to my topic, "primitive ways of magical transportation."

Looking at this book, I could imagine how hundreds of years ago a sorcerer sat by the light of a flickering candle, diligently tracing into the pages his knowledge of some old form of Apparition... Lightly touching the cover's engraved markings with my finger, I wondered how old it could possibly be. I turned over to look at the inside of the cover page, thinking I might see something like a date inscribed somewhere.

But there wasn't anything _written_ there; the cover's reverse side was smooth and unmarked except for a funny, square-shaped bump right in the middle, no bigger than the size of my palm.

"Weird.." I muttered, feeling the bump in attempt to figure out what it might be. It seemed like there was some sort of small, hard object trapped under the leather.

Well, wasn't that interesting...curious really. So did I have a choice but to cut open the book and take it out? Pince the librarian would kill me of course, if she found out. But I could always fix the book up with a little magic, couldn't I now? So I took my wand out of my robe pocket and made an incision in the leather right next to the mysterious object.

It turned out to be slender block of dark stone, its design fairly simple except for a very basic rune carved on one side. I recognized it immediately to mean "key," though a key to open _what_, exactly, the rune gave no hint for. Perhaps there would be something in the book which would explain it?

I thought maybe I should scan through the pages for any mention of keys, but at that moment the dormitory door opened and my best friend Emily entered the room.

"Hey Em." I greeted her. "I just found a key-thing inside this library book. It was actually _inside_ the book so I had to cut it out. Isn't that strange?"

"Hmhm." was the only reply that came from Emily's bed where she had gone to lie down. Her voice sounded a bit off and it was rather unlike her to give such a brief reply. I had expected her to say something like "Nah, that's not strange. You defacing school property is actually a pretty normal occurrence." even if she wouldn't share my enthusiasm.

"Em?" She didn't answer this time so I pocketed the key and lay aside the book to go sit beside her. "Are you feeling alright?"

"No." She didn't look at me but stared up at the ceiling of her four-poster, clutching a pillow to her chest. Her eyes were red and swimming with tears.

"Well are you going to tell me what's wrong? Wait, boy troubles?" I sighed, thinking of my clueless cousin. "What did Hugo do now?"

Emily's bottom lip trembled. "Asked some Hufflepuff to go to Hogsmeade with him."

"Are you serious? Hopeless wanker." If there was one thing I learned in my time at Hogwarts, it was that all boys are bloody stupid. Apparently that doesn't exclude the ones I'm related to. "It's obvious he likes you. Probably just doing it to make you jealous, you know?"

"But why would he think he needs to make me jealous?"

"He doesn't think, is the problem. Would you like me to go knock some sense into him?"

"No!" She gave me a panicking look. "If you do that, then he'll know."

"Well maybe that wouldn't be so bad." I really didn't understand her. But if it took her until our last year at Hogwarts to admit she likes Hugo to me, I suppose I shouldn't've been expecting her to go and tell the bloke himself.

Just then my friend's stomach gave a rather loud growl.

"Hey, is this why you walked out after the first ten minutes of dinner?"

"I don't think I would've been able to keep my food down anyway. You should've seen how close together they were sitting." She said miserably.

"Wait, didn't you miss lunch as well?"

"But that was to study for that Potions test."

"Merlin's Pants, you must be ravenous! Why are you still sitting up here all depressed? This is a perfect reason to take a trip to the kitchens."

But Emily only pouted at my suggestion. "I don't want to go anywhere. And what if he's down in the common room?"

"At least that'll mean he's not off snogging that girl in some corner of the castle?"

Emily groaned. "You know just what to say."

At least she was still being sarcastic, I thought with relief. "Oh you know you could just end all this if you told him how you feel. Then he'll be snogging you. Where's the Gryffindor in you, huh?"

"It's not that simple." she whispered.

"And it's not that complicated. But you know what I think." I shrugged. After years of dealing with this, I recognized there was only so much I could say or do to help the situation. Still, what kind of person would I be to let my friend go hungry? I was feeling slightly peckish myself in any case, and the house elves probably had leftover pumpkin pie to give away from that night's dessert. "Alright, I'm going to go get us some food while you wallow in self-pity up here. You sure you don't wanna come?"

Of course Emily rarely changed her mind once she had decided on something, but she did request that I bring her a ham sandwich and some strawberry ice cream. So I emptied my book bag (after my first few visits to the kitchens of leaving with my arms full, trailing pasties on my path back, I learned to bring a bag), took out the Marauders' Map which I had tucked inside my Transfiguration textbook (it was rather past curfew), and turned to leave the room.

"Hey Emily?" I said, my hand on the doorknob.

"Mmh?"

"If you ever catch me willing to skip dinner over a bloke, feel free to hand me over to Pomfrey to have my head examined, alright?"

"Right." It seemed like she almost smiled. It was probably the image of me falling as head-over-heals in love as she had. I wasn't really one for long-term crushes or relationships. Well, I still had my fun, just never met the right person to get really serious with.

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About fifteen minutes later I was making my way back up to Gryffindor tower with a bag of ice cream, pumpkin pie, and sandwiches for two, dodging patrolling prefects with the help of the Map. Incredibly useful, that map. It was something I always had on hand now that I didn't have to share it with James and Al anymore.

Walking through a long corridor on the third floor, I tried to keep my footsteps quiet in the otherwise silent castle. And then I once again saw a labeled dot on the map- one of my professors- possibly heading my way. Just in case I slipped through a nearby door which I knew led to the trophy room.

The torches inside were lit as usual, even though it was completely empty and, as far as I knew, only came into use for detentions and snogging. It looked like it would be a couple minutes while Professor Ackerley passed through the corridor outside, so I sat down on one of the lower trophy cases to wait.

I spent a moment looking over the map. Of course I already knew all the passageways on it by heart, but it was still kinda cool being able to see where everyone was. I made a mental note to tell Emily that Hugo was up in his dorm and not snogging anyone.

My thoughts wandered a little and I remembered the blocky key I found earlier in the evening. It was still in my pocket so I took it out to examine again. I ran my fingers over its smooth texture. Even if I never found out what it was for, I still appreciated a good mystery. I've always felt that there's a certain charm to anything unknowable.

When I glanced at the map again Ackerley was gone, so I grabbed my bag of food and stood up to leave.

But, when I was once again facing the door, I had to blink and rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. There wasn't one, but two doors in front of me: One made of wood like most others in the castle, obviously leading back into the hallway, and another, right next to it, made of smooth, dark stone.

I rushed over to look at it closer- it was clearly magical since it hadn't been there before. And I had a suspicion that it just might have something to do with that ancient-looking key.

The door looked heavy and didn't have anything like a handle, but there were runes engraved all along its arching frame which looked too complicated for me to read, and - I smiled, reaching into my pocket once more - a little square indent in the place of where a knocker would usually be.

I placed the key into its lock, the possibilities of what I might find behind it flying through my mind. A room full of treasure? A room full of magic? Maybe it'll be some sort of enchanted chamber like the Room of Requirement which has more than one form?

Once the block sat snugly in it's place like the last piece of a puzzle, the heavy door faded into air as if vanished with a simple charm. And behind it was what looked like part of a lit corridor. Cautiously, I peered through the doorway, looked around, and saw a long hallway lit by torches, a couple suits of armor, and some perfectly familiar looking tapestries hanging on the gray stone walls. It was just the third floor corridor I had come in from.

Did the strange, appearing door lead to the exact same place as the normal one right next to it, then? I hadn't even considered that disappointing option. So much for finding a magical treasure room; It looked like all I did was make a hole in the wall next to a perfectly good door.

Rather put out by the anticlimactic turn of events, I decided to continue on my way back to Gryffindor Tower.

The Fat Lady was sleeping when I got there and she barely opened an eye to let me in when I told her "whizzing bees." When I opened the door to the dorm, however, I was rather surprised to see all the lights were already off and I could hear slow, deep breathing. Did everyone really go to bed in the twenty minutes I was gone? It was barely past eleven on a _Friday_, for Merlin's sake.

I went over to where I knew Emily's bed was and prodded her slightly.

"Psst, Em. I got the sandwiches and strawberry ice cream you ordered." I whispered. There was no answer so I asked for good measure, "Are you sleeping already?"

"Hmmffm." came a muffled reply from the dark lump on the bed.

"So you're leaving all the ice cream and pie for me to eat alone?" I asked, disappointed but still keeping my voice hushed.

"_Hmf_." the lump said again, this time with a note of irritation.

Well apparently, I wouldn't have anyone to share the midnight snack with. And I didn't exactly want to be eating in the dark, so I decided to go back down to the common room. There were very few people sitting awake there as well, but they were no one I knew or even remembered talking to before. At least the armchairs by the fireplace were empty.

I sat down in one of them, took out some pie, and kicked off my shoes to warm my toes on the flames' heat for a while. It seemed my night would end as quietly as it had begun, but at least it was still perfectly warm and comfy.

Even after I finished my pie slice and a cup of half-melted ice cream, I continued to sit in that armchair for a long time. Fire is funny like that- something about its heat and its flickering orange glow puts people into reveries. Eventually, too nicely settled to bother moving upstairs, I was lulled to sleep.

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><p><strong>AN:** As a bonus, here's a description of Lily Luna for you guys. I wasn't planning on posting it since it would be practically impossible to fit it into the narrative, as LL isn't poetic enough to ever describe herself this way. But I like it so much, why not just put it here in the author's note?

_Her round, brown eyes are usually cheerful, like little suns giving off a simple and inviting light. Her bright orange hair sticks up, stubborn and laughing, much like the petals of the flower which goes by the same name. Her mouth is rather wide, exaggerating any curl of her lips into a full-out smile or frown. Uncountable freckles are sprinkled across her thin face, congregating especially on her cheeks and perky nose. Her figure's lean and slightly muscled from the many hours of Quidditch, rather more boyish than she would like, especially considering her less-than-humble height. Her hands and feet are thin, and would be elegant, except the nails are always sporting chipped nail polish. Her movements are light and cat-like, sometimes lazy and relaxed, and sometimes light and springy. Her body's made of long slanting lines, curving like the stem of an overgrown weed, with her silly mop of unruly hair completing the image of a strange sort of flowering plant._

So that's that. Reviews? Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Confessions?

And btw, please feel free to review a chapter even if it's not the most recently posted one! This is all one big story after all, so feedback on any part of the project is very appreciated!


	2. Meeting the Marauders

**Discliamer**: Not mine. JKR's.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Meeting the Marauders<strong>

It was slightly darker in the Gryffindor common room when I woke to the sound of voices and the thud of the portrait hole. It couldn't have been long past midnight, judging by the still burning logs in the fireplace. I rubbed my eyes, still half asleep but thinking I should get up and drag myself to bed (as sleeping in the common room often results in getting pranked. I know from experience; I've had a few mornings of waking up with a mustache).

But then the sound of my name caught my ear and I turned to look at whomever it was that woke me with their entrance.

"-Potter. I expect you to have that ready by our next meeting. And I don't want to see it in Remus' handwriting again. I don't know how you have the decency to remain Head Boy when you burden your friend with the responsibility Dumbledore entrusts us with."

"But Evans, Remus owed me a favor." The boy defended himself- was that _Albus_? It looked so much like him, but that didn't really make sense. It's been two years since Al was Head Boy. He wasn't even supposed be at Hogwarts. But the girl _had_ called him Potter.. And why was he wearing glasses? _Weird. _It made him look like dad. I stared as he continued. "It was only _paperwork_. And Remus doesn't find that stuff as mind-numbingly boring as I do, so he probably did a better job of it anyway."

"Then he'd probably do a better job wearing that badge as well, don't you think?" The girl gave him a sharp look, and finishing with a cold "Don't be late for patrols next time," ascended the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Al gave a sigh, and with hunched shoulders, not even noticing me at first, came over to take a seat by the fire. When he finally saw me sitting across from him he didn't say anything at all, but only gave me a small nod of polite acknowledgement before again looking away into the flickering flames.

Well, judging by that maybe he wasn't my brother after all.

"Er, Al?" I finally broke the silence and disturbed the boy out of his reverie. "Is that you?"

"Um, no." He shook his head, and now that he faced me and I got a good look at him, I could tell for myself that he wasn't.

"Oh, sorry. But who are you then? You just look an awful lot like my brother."

"Er, James Potter." said the boy giving me a curious look.

I gave a slight snicker. "Right. Except you're not." What was he playing at?

"Um. Except I am?"

"Are you saying you're my other brother?"

"Uh, no."

"So you're a different James Potter?"

He frowned. "I suppose so. But I am the only James Potter at Hogwarts, as far as I know."

Something funny was definitely going on. Why had I never seen this boy before? And was his name and appearance just a coincidence? It seemed a stretch to say so.

Apparently he was thinking along similar lines, because after a moment of confusion-heavy silence he asked me "Are you a student here?"

"Yeah." I said. "Obviously- I'm a Gryffindor."

"And what's your name?"

"Lily Potter."

The boy gave me a half-amused grin. "No, really."

"Yeah, really." I said. "Lily Potter. Have you really not heard of me?"

"Lily as in L-I-L-Y? And Potter as in P-O-T-T-E-R?

"Um, yeah. Lily Potter." I repeated, feeling like a parrot.

He sat up in his chair and for one moment we stared at each other in mutual confusion, until I heard the thumps of footstep coming down the stairs. They were eventually joined by the sound of several voices.

"-might as well make it a productive night. When's the last time we paid a visit to the Slytherin common room anyway?"

"Last week when you set off those five dozen dung bombs.."

"Exactly. They're probably starting to feel neglected."

"I don't think so Padfoot; most of them still haven't managed to wash out the smell."

"Right, but that's still old news. So, Wormtail, what do you think?"

"We could change their color scheme to red and gold again?"

"Well, it's a classic I s'pose, but it's too easily reversible-"

"Not to mention it would give away our house identity. Even if Slughorn can't prove it was us, he'd be able to take away points."

"Yeah, I'm thinking we should put Sticking Charms on their toilet seats instead. That's house-neutral so Moony doesn't have to get his knickers in a twist about house points, and as a bonus, imagine Snivellus having to call on Slughorn in the morning to unstick his bum from a toilet."

Three boys had appeared from the staircase leading up to the dorms. They'd walked over to where "James Potter" and I were sitting, and as I got a closer look at them I again noticed something funny. Something about them was familiar, I just couldn't place it.

"Hey Prongs," one of them said. "How'd your rounds with Lily go-oh, hi." He also had not noticed me right away, sitting in my high-backed armchair facing the fire.

For a moment I wondered what exactly "rounds with Lily" was supposed to mean, but then I noticed something about the boy who had spoken- the way the firelight caught his face and illuminated several scars running along one of his cheeks. I suddenly recognized a younger version of the face I had seen throughout the pages of my parents' old photo albums. It was Remus Lupin- an old school friend of my grandfather's who had died in the Second War.

Suddenly something clicked. Of course. I'm related to more than one James Potter. I stared at the boy sitting across from me wide-eyed. _Is that really..?_

"So who the bloody hell's this?" said a boy whom, at a second glance, I recognized as the young Sirius Black. "She's not coming with us to charm the toilets, is she?"

"Well..her name's Lily Potter, apparently." said James.

They all looked at me.

Sirius looked back at James. "I don't get it."

"Er, is that a coincidence?" Peter Pettigrew asked.

"Wow." I finally found my voice. "Bloody _surreal_. You guys are the Marauders, aren't you?"

"Yeah. So you do know us?" Now James looked like he was expecting some answers.

"I, uh- kinda." was all I managed to say. Apparently they were all under the impression that they were still students at Hogwarts. Was I supposed to tell them that I'm James' granddaughter and that no, I didn't _really _know them, because they've been dead for quite a few decades now? Honestly, I had no idea what was going on, and as a rational person I was damn puzzled as to why I was in the presence of my deceased, teenage grandfather and his friends. Were they some sort of spirits from the beyond? Was I simply dreaming? Or had there been something in that pie?

I was at a bit of a loss for what to do or think, and all four of them were still expectantly staring at me with varying degrees of mistrust.

"Right." spoke up Sirius. "Whatever her name is, isn't it suspicious that none of us can recognize someone who's supposedly in our own house? How do you explain that?"

"Uh.." was the most charismatic reply I could muster. Really, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. It was rather unpleasant being interrogated by anyone, let alone by spirits, hallucinations, dream-figments, or whatever. Though to be honest, they looked pretty solid..

"Hey, Wormtail. Why don't you, um, go check the name on the map?" James said suddenly, in a tone of voice as though he was speaking in code. But if he was trying to be vague for my sake, it didn't exactly work.

"Oh!" I said smiling, hoping to ease the tension. "The Marauders' Map? Don't worry, I know all about it already. I, too, solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." I gave them a knowing wink for good measure.

But suddenly Sirius had a wand pointing at my face and James was asking me, his voice sharp and his eyes narrowed, "How do you know?"

"I- well, I've had some experience using your map, and it's, er, a top quality product." I answered vaguely but honestly; being held at wandpoint rather made me too reluctant to lie, but it really didn't seem like a good time to break the news that they were all, in fact, dead. Addressing Sirius I said, "Is that really necessary?"

But apparently the very solid-looking apparition of Sirius Black wasn't a particularly friendly one, because he ignored my question, and said over his shoulder "Can someone please look up this nutter's name already and give me a direct answer?"

"Uh," said Peter, who was squinting at a folded up piece of parchment after pulling it out of his bag. Even though I knew it was the Map, I didn't recognize it right away; it looked much less aged and yellowed than the version I had tucked in my cloak pocket. "I'm looking but it's difficult to see in this light.."

"Oh for Merlin's sake.. _Lumos_." Sirius finally moved his wand away from me to examine the relatively new-looking parchment.

There was something funny about that. My hand slipped into my pocket and sure enough felt that _my _map was exactly where I had left it. So there really were two versions of it then? Curious, it made me think that...

"Can I see that?" I asked, motioning to the parchment Sirius was now holding.

"Weird, Prongs, that's, er, really what it says on here.."

"Please, can I just look at it? I really have to check something-"

"You mean it says 'Lily Potter?'"

"I already know how it works and everything so I'll be quick-"

"Er, yeah, spelled that way and everything. See for yourself-"

"Bloody hell!" I said, rather loudly, considering the time of night. At least it got the boys' attention. "Right, now, I need to see the Map."

James, who looked at me now with a strange mix of expressions, finally obliged my request and reached over to pass me the folded parchment. It was open to show five labeled dots crowded around the fireplace of the Gryffindor Common room. I unfolded the top part to look at the 7th year girls' dormitory and the names of all the people in their beds: _Dorcas Meadowes, Mary Macdonald, Emmeline Vance, Lily Evans._

Still not fully believing what I was seeing, I unfolded the map further and found the Headmaster's Office. Apparently, several castle floors below me, Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his Headmaster's chair.

"Bloody..hell." I muttered.

So I had been wrong to think that the Marauders were mere apparitions. And really, there was nothing at all strange happening around me. Everything was right and logical, and everyone was in their right, logical place. Well, except for me. Because I had apparently managed to travel about fifty years into the past.

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><p><strong>AN:** Yay, confusing the characters is so fun! :D


	3. Sorting Things Out

**A****/****N**: Ello mates! I know I haven't updated for like half an eternity, mostly cuz I couldn't get it to be the way I wanted, so I was sorta doubting it. But then I checked back and found a new review from Abbl2, and I really like cherries, on top or otherwise, so here you go :) And it's summer anyway (freeeedom!), so I've got the time.

**Disclaimer**: JKR owns the awesome Harry Potter and all the other awesome stuff in her magical world of awesomeness.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 3: ****Sorting ****Things ****Out**

_Wow__,_ I thought, trying to process that I was sitting in a whole different century than I had been in that morning. And now that I knew where- or rather _when_- I was and what was happening, it wasn't difficult to figure out _how_ it must've happened. So the strange doorway I had opened earlier had probably been quite a bit more than just a hole in the wall.

The Marauders were still staring at me, though now with considerably less hostility and more curiosity. Clearly they were expecting me to say something, but I didn't and for a while all that could be heard was the crackling of the now dying flames.

"So it's not just a coincidence, is it?" James finally asked.

"Er, what's not a coincidence?" I said, though I knew what he was was talking about; I had suddenly realized the full complexity of the situation, and I really needed to buy myself time to think. After all, wasn't there some sort of obvious and generally accepted rule about not messing things up when time traveling? I knew it was one of the most well-regulated forms of magic; it wasn't even legal without express permission from the Ministry. Of course that didn't stop Dad and Aunt Hermione back in their third year, but they had only gone back a few hours, and from what I remembered of their story, _not __being __seen_ was rather key.

But it was a bit late to be thinking of hiding as I was already in mid-conversation with my future grandfather. And with everything I had already revealed, it didn't seem possible to wiggle myself out of the situation by lying.

"Well," James leaned forward in his armchair, ticking off fingers as he listed. "There's that we've never seen you before, the two of us share a surname, somehow you know about the Map even though no one but us four should, and then there's your first name.. It's not just a coincidence that your first name's Lily, is it?"

"Uh, that's just what my parents named me." I said, sounding a bit dim-witted. Really, it was getting difficult avoiding his questions.

"Do you know Lily Evans?" Peter asked. "She's our Head Girl and Prongs here fancies her. That's why he's asking."

Lily Evans was my grandmother of course, and thinking back I realized she must've been the girl that James had come in with. But obviously I wasn't going to tell them that. So I ignored the question and instead considered what my chances of getting away were if I were to simply make a run for the portrait hole.

But clearly the boys weren't about to let me be.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius gave an exasperated sigh at my silence. "Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"_Padfoot__._" hissed Remus. "You can't just _threaten_ her."

"What? Why?" Sirius gave a small frown before realizing "Oh, sorry if she's your relative, Prongs, but she's being a twat, so.."

"Hey!" I exclaimed indignantly. "I'm not _being __a __twat_."

"Er, don't mind him." said Remus giving me an apologetic look. "He's a bit socially challenged."

"Yeah, no, you _are_ being a twat. We've been sitting here for how long now? And you haven't given us a single straightforward answer!"

Obviously, keeping mute was not an option. They've all as good as realized that I was from a different time anyway, and if they hadn't yet, they weren't thick and all the dots were there to be connected. Was there anything I could still do to fix things? Surely there was something..

"Alright." I said. "I'll be straightforward. It's not a coincidence that my name's Potter. But now, before I go back home, I'll have to erase all your memories of tonight."

Sirius and Remus exchanged meaningful looks while James' eyes remained glued to me.

"Why would you want to do that when you haven't told us anything in the first place?" Peter frowned.

"Because you wanker," said James. "She's my relative from the future."

My silence confirmed James' words.

"Bloody hell. You're Prongs' daughter?" Sirius exclaimed.

I bit my lip. "..I don't think I should keep answering your questions."

"Why not, if you're planning to erase our memories?" asked James, his voice just as intense as his gaze.

"Because," I explained, "if a Memory Charm's not done right, it can do quite a bit of damage, and the more intense the memory, the harder it is to wipe."

Remus nodded slowly, "So the less we find out now the better."

"Wait, _quite __a __bit __of __damage_?" Peter sounded uncomfortable. "Are you sure you're qualified then? And it's not like you even told us all that much, so do you even _have_ to wipe it?"

I sighed, "Haven't you ever heard of the butterfly effect? Even a small change can lead to a chain of events and make all the difference in the end, altering the course of the future."

"Hm." Sirius nodded solemnly. "So you're saying that because I now know that this git with stupid hair-" James' eyes left my face for a brief moment to give Sirius a glare "-is going to go on to reproduce and make a twat with similarly stupid hair-"

"Hey! It's not my fault; it's genetic." I said, though they obviously already knew that. It was an automatic response.

"-right, so you're saying that my knowledge of Prongs' future life affairs can change important stuff like who'll be the next Minister, or who'll win the war against Voldemort or something?"

"Padfoot!" Remus full-out elbowed him this time.

"Ow- bloody- _what_?"

"You can't talk about that."

"I wasn't talking about it; I only mentioned it, and I don't think that makes me deserving of being hit with your very sharp elbow."

Of course, I thought, Sirius didn't know just how tied up 'Prongs' future life affairs' would be with the defeat of Lord Voldemort, but I only answered, "Yeah, that's the idea of the butterfly effect."

"Hey." said James suddenly. "Did you say something about having brothers? When we first started talking, didn't you say that I look like your brother? And when I told you my name is James-"

"Prongs!" Remus interrupted him. "Thinking about a memory in your head makes it more intense as well."

"So I can't even ask for clarification?"

"Well you probably shouldn't. Actually, the sooner we forget all this, the better. When are you planning on leaving?" Remus asked me. Clearly he was the practical one.

Though I wasn't exactly sure what I was planning at the moment, Remus' suggestion of cutting things short sounded like a good idea. It was almost one according to my watch, and the conversation I had just had had been a rather demanding one. I didn't much like the feeling of being afraid to speak and say the wrong thing. It felt like walking in a minefield where if you take a wrong step, _poof__,_ you've never been born. Even though there was something pretty amazing about seeing _the __Marauders_, right there, in front of me, in person.

I did hope the stone doorway was still there..and I also hoped it would be gone soon, because Merlin knows things could get messed up if there was to be a permanent portal to 1977 right in the middle of the third floor corridor.

"Right, I suppose I really _should _get going now." I quickly pulled on my socks, stood up and grabbed my bag, which still contained a few sandwiches and some probably very goopy ice cream. Then I took a deep breath, and turned to point my wand at Peter "Alright then-"

"Wait!" he squeaked. "So exactly how good are you with Memory Charms?"

"Good enough." I said. Which really meant that yeah, I'm alright at Charms in general, though I was a bit out of practice with doing memory wipes. Maybe that's why I felt that Peter should go first. But as I was about to cast the spell, James suddenly spoke up.

"You do know how to get back, yeah?"

"Er, I think so." Honestly I wasn't sure what I would do if I couldn't find the doorway. Owl the Ministry, probably. This seemed like the sort of thing for the Department of Mysteries to sort out.

"Alright. And you're not going to be wandering around the castle all alone right? I mean, these days and at this time of night.."

Well, I hadn't thought about that, but I was sure it would be fine. In my time at Hogwarts, I'd gone sneaking around the castle past curfew too many times to count. "Don't worry." I said, "I won't get lost or anything."

James only looked more concerned. "So you _are _going out there by yourself?"

"Well I have the Map, don't I?"

"James, she'll be fine." said Sirius.

"Yeah, well, that Hufflepuff's not fine, is he? Been in the hospital wing for over a week now." I had no idea what that was supposed to mean until James continued after a heavy pause. "It's not safe wandering out there without company, with all that's been going on. Don't you remember Dumbledore saying we should try to avoid being out alone after dinner?"

"What are you getting at, Prongs?"

"I think we should come with you." James addressed me, adding quickly, "Not all the way to the future, obviously. I mean to wherever you're going that's in the castle. It can't hurt for us to walk you there, right?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Remus, giving James a slightly worried look. "I mean, the longer you're exposed to-"

"I'll be fine, Remus."

Of course I wasn't too familiar with what my grandfather was talking about, but it did remind me that the year I was in was a time of war. Perhaps I should avoid unnecessary carelessness.

"Alright, I'm going down to the Trophy Room. If any of you four want to escort me, I'm fine with that. But we have to go _now_." I wanted to hurry up in case the door had an expiration time.

So the five of us exited the portrait hole, earning a few angry mumbles from the mostly-sleeping Fat Lady, and made our way down to the third floor.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**: So I was gonna make this the talk with Dumbledore chapter, but then the Marauders seriously hijacked it, so you'll see the headmaster next time, lol.

Oh, and I know that the characters might be a bit stereotypical here (especially Peter). But it's the beginning of the story, and it's Lily Luna's point of view, so this isn't the right time to be showing any character depth that they might have. I've been working that out a bit though, in my notes. Honestly, JKR made him out to be a bit of a sycophant and not super bright, so for now I'm just staying true to that. I promise he won't be a flat character forever though.

Thoughts?


	4. The Headmaster's Explanation

**A****/****N****: **Hey guys!

I'm glad you like the fic, luckydoggy :) And yes, lol, "sassy" is a good way to describe Lily Luna. I plan to have a lot of fun with that later, hehe... Right now, of course, she's kind of in a difficult place so I think it's understandable if she doesn't feel like herself for a while.

**Disclaimer****: **Sometimes one has to ask oneself, what is mine in this world? The desk in my room, is it mine? The socks on my feet, are they mine? My heart and my lungs and my mind, is it all really mine? For in the end, it all goes back to the Earth, doesn't it? However, there is one thing I do not question and that I know for sure, and it is that the original world of Harry Potter is not mine.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 4: ****The ****Headmaster****'****s ****Explanation**

"Oh no." I said, running up to the blank stretch of stone wall beside the Trophy Room door. "_Oh__, __bloody __hell__._" I ran my fingers over the cold, solid stone.

"What is it?" asked James when the Marauders caught up to me.

"It's suppose to be right here." I motioned at the spot. "There was another door next to this door."

"Yeah," Sirius shook his head slowly. "There's never been a door there."

"I _know_, but there was this book with this key, and the door _appeared_ while I was hiding in the Trophy Room."

"And now it's gone?" asked Sirius.

"Well it looks that way, doesn't it?"

"So, uh, what now then?" Peter voiced the obvious question.

"Well I was thinking I would contact the Ministry.."

But Remus had a better suggestion. "You should go to Dumbledore. He's already here in the castle and he'll know what to do."

"Good idea." agreed James. "The Ministry's..not always reliable."

From what I knew of Dumbledore, he did seem to be the helpful type. "Alright." I said.

As the five of us walked up to the Headmaster's office, we were mostly silent. Peter was monitoring the map to make sure we wouldn't run into any trouble, and James kept looking at me like he really wanted to say something.

At one point Sirius did ask, "Are you really named after Evans? Because you don't look too much like her, to be honest."

"You know I can't answer that." I said as Remus gave him another bad look. James didn't say anything.

Of course I couldn't help feeling a little uneasiness thinking about what had I gotten myself into. I mean, it was awesome to adventure into the past and meet a couple of my personal heroes and all, but at the same time it was a little perturbing to be decades away from home without a simple way back. Most likely, I thought, I would have to use a time-turner. I just hoped that I hadn't managed to mess anything up permanently.

A few minutes later the Marauders and I found ourselves at the stone gargoyle guarding the office entrance.

"So, I guess this is where we part ways." I turned to the boys and draw out my wand again, smiling sadly.

James nodded and said "The password's Berry Fizz Balls."

The Memory Charms appeared to work perfectly, and, before they could really come to and notice me again, I left the four rather dazed boys standing at the bottom of the moving spiral staircase.

I hesitated before knocking on the door to the office, aware that it was pretty much the middle of the night. Since I didn't much like the option of camping out on the stairs, I decided that this was one of those times that rudeness should be excusable.

It took barely a minute for the door to open and for me to find myself standing before _the_ Albus Dumbledore and his long white beard. Judging by the purple starry nightgown he was wearing, he had indeed been sleeping, but his voice betrayed no irritation at being woken up at such an hour.

"Hello," he looked at me through his crescent-shaped spectacles. "I assume you would like to come in?"

When I was sitting across from him at the front of his desk, Dumbledore asked me, "Are you currently a student here? I'm afraid I don't recognize you, Miss-?"

"Potter. My name's Lily Potter." I said, and he raised his white furry eyebrows in slight amusement. "And I _am_ a student here. Just, er, not currently. I'm sorta came here from the year 2025." I went on to explain the story of how I went through the magic door and found myself exactly forty-eight years into the past. "I came to you, Professor, because I can't get back on my own. The doorway's gone now, so I was thinking I would have to use a time-turner or something?"

I was expecting Dumbledore to nod, send an owl to the Ministry, and tell me to wait a bit while they sent the time-turner over. I even imagined it'd have to be an especially huge one, since I had so many years to travel in order to get home. However, the Headmaster didn't speak until some moments after I finished, frown lines etched deep on his face.

"I'm afraid it won't be so simple, Miss Potter. Unintentional time-travel isn't a common occurrence, and time-travel without use of Sands of Time is practically unheard of. I suggest that we don't jump to conclusions about what happened when that rune was activated."

"But what do you mean, Professor? This _is_ 1977, isn't it?"

"Yes, but time-travel is sometimes even more complex than we imagine, and there is more than one form of it. Currently we are only able to control one type- travel within our own time-stream. Runes, however, are an archaic form of magic, not all of which is understood in the modern world. If I remember correctly, some of these long-forgotten spells included travel between different dimensions, or 'parallel universes.'"

Dumbledore looked awfully serious explaining this to me, but I didn't know exactly what he meant "I'm not sure I understand, Professor."

"It's a complex topic, and I don't happen to be an expert on it myself. However, the doorway you passed through sounds similar to what modern scholars speculatively describe as the link between dimensions. Also considering that you did not come into contact with any Sand of Time, I would assume that not only are you now in the year 1977, but you've traveled to another time-stream altogether."

"Um, so what exactly does this mean for me?" I frowned, unsure how upset to be about this news.

"Well, we can't predict the exact consequences of this ancient magic, but there are some we can reasonably expect. First off, I'm afraid sending you back to where you came from won't be easy, Miss Potter. We do not know where to find this link again, let alone how to work it. Using a time-turner to send you to the right time, if not the right dimension, would be dangerous; your body is foreign to this time-stream, so we cannot predict if a time-turner would work properly on you. Not to mention it's possible that there will be another version of yourself already there."

I bit my lip. "So...I have to stay here, indefinitely?"

"Until we find a way to send you back home, I can offer you a spot as a student at this school."

I nodded, knowing that would be my best option. It's not like I had anywhere else to go - everyone I knew was either not born yet or has never met me. It was difficult wrapping my mind around the fact that this adventure to the past was going to be something long-term. _"__Until __we __find __a __way __to __send __you __home__._" And how long would that take? Weeks? Months? Years? What about my life? I had had no warning that I was going to be thrown into another dimension and another time. What about my worldly possessions and my friends and family? I had no way of telling when would be the next time I would see them...I felt rather numb.

"I assume you will stay in the same House and year you were in before, Miss Potter?"

Shifting my focus away from my worried thoughts, I answered "Yes, I'm a Gryffindor. Seventh year."

"Then it is settled. Tomorrow morning we shall sort out the details of your situation and your new identity."

"So I can't tell anyone where I'm really from, right?" I assumed as much but still thought I should hear Dumbledore confirm it.

"Yes, it would be best to keep most things concerning your past to yourself. You have a lot of power because of your knowledge of our future, but just because you have that power doesn't mean you should use it. Perhaps there are some events which you wish to change, but playing with fate can lead to disastrous consequences. I will trust that you understand that."

I nodded again, meeting Dumbledore's steady gaze. I knew what he was saying: there were some horrible things which I had the power to change now. For one, I knew of Peter Pettigrew's future treachery. If I was to warn the Marauders about it, everything would be different. Perhaps they could all be saved from death, or perhaps they would all be doomed to die years later in a world ruled Voldemort, because that fateful night when Voldemort tried to kill Dad and "marked him as his equal" would never happen...Knowing that Voldemort would be destroyed in the end, I couldn't purposely try to change anything major.

Dumbledore continued. "And I'm afraid there is a reason, other than safe-keeping the future, for why I must urge you to be secretive. Revealing that you are a time traveler may put you in danger in more ways than one. These are unpleasant times, Miss Potter. Have you heard of Voldemort?"

"Of course," I said. I didn't understand why being a time traveler would put me in any more danger from Voldemort than the next person's in, until the Headmaster continued.

"These are bad times not only because of Voldemort's ascent. The Ministry has been in panic, resorting to desperate measures. In being more careful in stopping Voldemort, they've been more careless in protecting innocents. They've been putting blame where they could get away with it. Being labeled a 'suspicious person' is enough to get you on trial and into Azkaban."

I sat listening with my teeth clenched, because I suddenly know what Dumbledore meant.

"Do you have any documentation with you, Miss Potter?"

"No." I thought of how all I had brought in my bag was pie and ice cream.

"Then we shall get you some soon. Do you have an idea for what you want as your new name? I suggest you use your middle name since it is already familiar to you. As for your surname, you can use Porter, since that shouldn't be too difficult to get used to either."

"Well, my middle name's Luna, so I suppose I could be Luna Porter."

"Alright then, Miss Porter. I suggest we leave the rest to be sorted out in the morning."

I couldn't agree with that more, for things were feeling like soup in my head and I didn't know what to think anymore. Dumbledore decided that the best place for me to spend the night would be the hospital wing, since it usually had extra beds. I was glad when a very young looking Madame Pomfrey gave me a much needed Sleeping Potion and left me alone to settle into the starched white sheets.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N****: **So this talk with Dumbledore had to be serious and it set up some important plot stuff. I know that part of it gets almost sci-fi, with all the "dimension travel" stuff. But even though this story literally takes place in an alternate universe, I still plan to generally follow canon. Nothing like Lily ending up with Snape or Harry's real father turning out to be the giant squid.

Cat, I'm a kittycat. And I dance dance dance and I dance dance dance.

(I say sexay things to myself when I'm daaauuuncing!)

REV-MEOWS?


	5. The Gryffindor Girls

**Disclaimer****: **I do not own Harry Potter . rettoP yrraH nwo ton od I **: ****remialcsiD**

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 5: ****The ****Gryffindor ****Girls**

I opened my eyes to the brightness of the morning sun streaming through the windows of the hospital wing. My immediate reaction was to try figuring out where it hurt, but then the memories which explained my presence in that particular part of the castle came to me.

"_Oh__, __right__, __time__- __er__, _dimension -_travel__._"

I took a moment to consider what lay ahead of me now, trying to process the reality of what had happened. Technically, I was still at Hogwarts, a place I had been at for over six years now, but it wasn't the same, really. In my past, I had spent many a night in the very hospital wing I was lying in now, and I knew everything in it from the wooden bedside tables to the patterns on the arched ceiling. But what good did stone and wood do me when I knew that I wouldn't be seeing Emily and Hugo at breakfast, that I wouldn't get an owl from home for Merlin knows how long, that I wouldn't even get to fly my Firebolt 360 until I figured out how to get back. It was as though suddenly everything I cared about was gone out of my reach, and I didn't belong in a place which had been familiar to me for many years.

I also had difficulty wrapping my mind around the idea that I would now live keeping a great big secret, and that if anyone found out, I would be in danger from the Ministry. I was so used to thinking of the Ministry as friendly - just last summer I had worked there on an internship, and Dad had been Head of the Auror Department for years! But of course that wasn't the same anymore either; it was now the middle of a war and what little family I had didn't even know I existed, since I wasn't _supposed __to_ exist yet.

When I pushed away these disheartening thoughts, the clock on the wall told me it was time to go down for breakfast. I threw off my covers, got up, and started putting on my school uniform. I kept my focus on the day ahead and a feeling of excited nervousness settled in my stomach. I hoped that I would make friends easily enough. At least I already knew the Marauders a little, even though they weren't going to remember me. And I was going to meet my grandmother. I had a feeling she'd be a nice person, even though she didn't sound too happy with grandpa the previous night. Still, there was a reason for why I was named after her.

"Are you going to breakfast now, dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked me when she came out of her office.

"Yes." I answered, weaving my hair into two messy braids. While I definitely got my hair color from Mom, I had my dad to thank for the general level of my hair's manageability. Meaning, without the appropriate styling, I could not go out into public without people inquiring me what had happened to my head. Not that any simple procedure can make my hair look _normal_, but at least the braids made my look like I _could_ belong in civilized society.

"I need to take your temperature before you go." said Madam Pomfrey, flourishing a thermometer at me.

"Er, but I'm not sick. I'm only in here because there was no where else to sl- _mpf_." She shoved the thermometer in my mouth. I had thought it was just age, but, apparently, Pomfrey was as barmy about health at thirty as she was at eighty.

"Do you need someone to escort you to the Great Hall, Miss Porter? You'll find Hogwarts very easy to get lost in, if you're not familiar with the castle."

"Mo, itf alrife-" I tried to speak with the thermometer under my tongue.

"Don't talk! I'll be back in a minute. Keep that in your mouth." She walked out, leaving a side of the double door ajar. I heard her call to someone down the hall, "Excuse me! You! Yes, Miss Vance. I need you to escort a girl to the Great Hall."

Footsteps approached the door and a girl's voice said as she came in, "It's October! You'd think all the first years would have learned the way to the Great Hall by _now_- Oh, hi."

She stopped and looked at me curiously. I gave her a smile, which probably didn't come out very pretty, since I still had a glass rod sticking out of my mouth.

"This is Luna Porter." Madam Pomfrey introduced me. "She's a transfer student, so it's her first day at Hogwarts." And finally, she took the thermometer. "Ah good, no fever."

"Can I go now?" I asked, eager to get out of there before Pomfrey might decide to take my blood pressure as well.

"Yes, but if you find you're feeling unwell, come back straightaway."

"Right.." I stood up, threw my bag over my shoulder, and left the hospital wing with the girl right behind me. Then I remembered that she was supposed to be leading me, so I let her go ahead.

"I'm Emmeline Vance, by the way. Call me Emma." I tried to recall if I've heard of her in my time. Her name wasn't familiar, but I could see by her robes that she was a Gryffindor. She had thick, dark hair, was physically rather short and a little bit on the plump side, but her posture and very sharp gaze, framed by thick lashes, made her look like someone you wouldn't mess with. "We'll see each other around, since we're in the same house. What year are you in?"

"Seventh." I answered.

"Then we're going to be dorm mates." she said, giving me a smile. "You know, Hogwarts doesn't get many transfer students. Where've you been for the past six years and a month?"

"I've, er, been at a different school. But I can't really go there anymore, so Dumbledore let me start up here." For simplicity's sake I kept to the truth as much as I could. I wished I had thought to prepare some answers to the questions I would inevitably be bombarded with all day.

"A different school? Was it here in England?"

"No, it's abroad and not that well known; you probably haven't heard of it." I said before quickly changing the subject. "So, uh, Hogwarts looks pretty amazing. How are the professors here and stuff?"

"They're great, in general, although most of them like to give sadistic amounts of homework to us seventh years."

"Yeah, I expect that hasn't changed. It was the same thing at my old school."

"Oh I bet it's the same most places. Don't you know that as students, our purpose in life should be to write five-foot essays and make number charts?"

"Of course." I said, smiling. "Anyone who hasn't been taught _that_ has a serious gap in his education."

"The weird thing is that some people don't mind it. I've got a friend who finishes all her assignments days in advance. She's the Head Girl, too. Bit of an overachiever, you can say. Especially this year. Ever since she got the badge she's gone a bit overboard with the whole being perfect thing."

"Really? Why's that?" Not only did I want to keep Emma occupied with answering questions so she wouldn't be asking any, but I was also pretty sure that the Head Girl was my grandmother.

"Well I've tried telling her it's not healthy, but I think she still feels like she has to prove herself or something. She's a Muggleborn." Emma admitted, as though that explained everything.

"And people think there's something wrong with that?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. I guess the reality of it still hadn't fully sunk in.

Emma gave me a confused look. "Are you telling me that your old school didn't have its own share of blood-status obsessed maniacs?"

"Well if we did, they kept their bigotry to themselves." I said honestly. "Everyone would've thought they were stupid if they tried to say anything publically."

"Wow." Emma said. "I only wish Hogwarts was like that. It's gotten bad here, especially in these times."

As we walked down to the Great Hall, Emma continued telling me about Hogwarts, but half my mind worked on what I would tell people when they ask where I'm from. It would have to be something as uninteresting as possible- the less I'm questioned the better- and something no one knows much about- so I wouldn't get caught in a lie.

"You can sit with my friends and me, if you don't know anyone here." Emma offered when we walked in. I followed her to the Gryffindor table, and immediately noticed that one of the friends she was talking about was indeed Lily Evans. Even though I didn't get a very good look at her the previous night, I recognized her immediately; her eyes were the same brilliant green as my dad's and my brother's, her auburn hair a bit shorter than how I'd seen it in photographs. She wore a cream-colored headband and a Head Girl badge neatly pinned to her black robes.

"Hi." I said when I lowered myself onto the bench beside Emma. Lily and the girl next to her looked at me with friendly surprise.

"This is Lily Evans, and Dorcas Meadowes- also your new dorm mates." Emma explained.

"Dorm mates?" Lily's eyebrows raised a bit higher.

"She's a transfer student." Emma put in before I properly introduced myself.

I gave them a friendly smile. "My name's Luna Porter."

"Wow, you're a transfer student? Those don't come along at Hogwarts too often, do they?" Lily said with excitement, and - perhaps I imagined it? - just the smallest hint of suspicion.

"Well I wouldn't know, but Dumbledore interviewed me and decided to let me in." I shrugged, and started to pile food on my plate. "He seems like a really great Headmaster." But I knew what Lily meant. In my own time at school there had never been any new upperclassmen; I didn't know that Hogwarts even _allowed_ transferring.

"So where are you from?" Dorcas asked me.

"Well I grew up here in England." I didn't speak any other languages so I figured I wouldn't lie about that. But I could do a decent American accent, if need be. "I've been going to school in the States though."

"Why didn't you come to Hogwarts right away?" asked Emma as she reached for a blueberry muffin. "It's a pretty good school."

"Yeah I've heard good things about it." I said. "But my family's moved a few times and my mom likes for me to stay close..so yeah."

"Hm. Are your family wizards?" Lily wondered.

"Mostly..there are some Muggles on my dad's side..."

"I've never heard of the Porter family before." commented Dorcas.

Just then the girls' questions were cut short by the familiar fluttering sound of many owl wings which signaled the arrival of morning post. By reflex, I searched the mass of gray and brown, but quickly realized that there wasn't anything I should be expecting. Then I remembered that I should probably look surprised.

"This happens every day." Emma told me as a large owl landed in front of us, dropping a _Daily __Prophet_ on the table.

Dorcas gave the owl a few coins before it flew off while Lily unfolded the paper. I took the opportunity to start eating my pancakes, but Emma and Dorcas both looked at Lily as she scanned the _Prophet__._

"It doesn't say anything about new attacks, but look at _this_." she pointed at a headline on the front page. "'Ministry Declares Martial Law.' They've made it official, then."

"Not that it changes the situation with You-Know-Who." Emma said solemnly. "He was murdering before, and he'll be murdering still."

I swallowed. "Can I look at that?" I asked. If I was going to stay in 1977 for the long term, I thought I should get familiar with the times.

Handed the paper, I skimmed the articles on the front page and apprehension spread through me. Several phrases popped out to me: _Bartemius __Crouch __Made __Head __of __The __Department __of __Magical __Law __Enforcement__…__Ministry __declares __the __war __official__…__prosecuting __Death __Eaters __made __easier__…prepared to take any necessary measures..._

"…_suspension __of_ habeas corpus." I read the last bit out loud.

"That means they can put Death Eaters in prison without a trial." explained Lily. "The Ministry doesn't want to be forced to let someone go for lack of official proof."

"So you think they'll be able to stop You-Know-Who now?" Dorcas asked, biting her lip. "It'll make it easier to stop him, right?"

Lily and Emma mumbled their I-don't-knows, but I didn't say anything because I knew the answer all too well. Instead, I glanced down the Gryffindor table to where I had seen the Marauders sitting. Perhaps it will be easier for the Ministry officials to catch Death Eaters now, but they also just gave themselves the power to sentence an innocent man to a lifetime in Azkaban.

Plus, this didn't improve my situation as a _suspicious __person_ either.

"Hey!" a voice exclaimed from behind, and the girl it belonged to plopped down beside Emma. "You guys look serious – always talking about depressing stuff. Oh, hello!"

Like the others, she was surprised to notice me. Actually, there were quite a few people along the Gryffindor table who were eyeing me with curiosity, as though I was some sort of strange creature they've never encountered before. Not that I wasn't used to the attention; I was pretty well known back home, being captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Harry Potter's daughter and all that. But the only other time I could remember having so many confused stares pointed my way was when Hugo accidentally transfigured one of my arms into a leg.

"Hi." I tried to look friendly again."My name's Luna Porter. I'm a transfer student."

"Oh wow, transfer? No wonder I didn't recognize you. I'm Mary, by the way." She brushed her long, dirty blonde braid over her shoulder, then stretched out a hand over Emma's plate so I almost knocked over some orange juice trying to shake it. "Are you a seventh year, too?"

"Yep." I replied.

As I took another bite of pancake, Mary said "You know, your hair is really bright. Is a redhead's temper directly proportional to the brightness of her hair? Because if you're even more hot-headed than Lily, well, that's saying something. She can get seriously frightening."

"Hey!" Lily protested. "I'm not really that bad, am I?"

"Of course not, Lils." Dorcas assured her. "If anything, you're very kind and understanding. Dumbledore made you Head Girl for a reason."

"Thank you." then Lily smiled and addressed me. "You know, if you ever need anything - someone show you around the school or something like that- I'd be more than happy to help. Don't be afraid to ask me for anything."

"Just don't ask her to go out with James Potter." Emma snorted.

"Who's James Potter?" I asked for the sake of keeping up pretenses.

"He's the Head Boy to Lily's Head Girl." Mary snickered.

"Ugh." Lily gave a shudder. "_Don__'__t _say it like that."

"Oh, and why don't you want to go out with him, exactly?" I asked, curious to know why she so particularly disliked someone whom she'll one day be married to.

But when the words were out of my mouth, Emma, Mary, and Dorcas all flinched, clearly aware that that had been the wrong thing to ask. It happened so fast that it took me aback, since barely a moment ago Lily had been giving me a kind smile. But now, her eyes were suddenly flashing, she was speaking with a hiss, and her hand was clutching her fork in a fashion which suggested she was likely to start stabbing at someone's eye.

"You'll soon learn, Luna, that Potter is the most despicable person in this school, maybe in the whole country. He is _so_ arrogant! Walks around with his stupid hair and his stupid grin like he owns the place, like we all must bow down to him and his abnormally large head. In actuality he's just a bullying toerag. The way he treats people- it's despicable. I can't for the life of me figure out how he _ever_ made Head Boy; he's such an irresponsible _git_. He always makes these idiotic jokes, causes trouble with his friends all the time, slacks off at every opportunity, acts like everyone else is inferior, asks me out fifty times a day-"

"She's exaggerating." Emma cut in to inform me. "He only asks her out forty-eight times a day on average. Although the record number I believe was seventy-two."

"_Ugh_. As if just being in the same school as him isn't bad enough." Lily continued. "I have tried to convey to him verbally, physically, _and_ in written form that _no_, I would _not_ go to Hogsmeade with him. But the stupid bugger just doesn't give up!"

Dorcas sighed "Lily, we know you can go on for hours, and while it's delightful listening to you rant about Potter for the millionth time, we have class in ten minutes."

Lily huffed, "Fine, I was just making sure Luna here knows to watch out for Potter. It wouldn't be surprising if he jinxes her skin green as a welcome to Hogwarts prank or something."

I had sat listening with my eyebrows raised. From what I had seen of my grandfather, he wasn't _that _bad. Though I suppose I didn't know him well enough to judge yet. It's just that something about him reminded me of my brother James, whom it's true I wanted to hit on the head with a Beater's bat sometimes, but I knew he wasn't a _bad __person_.

"So, are you going to class with us?" Emma asked me, changing the topic.

I wasn't because I still had to go see Dumbledore and sort out the details of my situation. I could see he was still finishing up breakfast though, so I told the girls to leave without me and that I'd see them later in the day. The four of them went off to Charms and I was left to finish my pancakes and wait for the Headmaster.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N****:** And now we've met the Gryffindor girls! They're all very different, so the dynamic within their group is definitely..interesting, hah. We'll get to know the lot of them much better as the story goes on!


	6. Flying and a Friendly Game

**Disclaimer****:** Sometimes I'm jk. But I'm never JKRowling.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 7: ****Flying ****and ****a ****Friendly ****Game**

My talk with Dumbledore lasted until lunch. We made my new class schedule and discussed things like what school materials I'd be requiring and how I would pay for for most of them (luckily the school has a fund for students with money problems and there were lots of second-hand textbooks available as well). Dumbledore mentioned he'd get me a passport and birth certificate and all that stuff, though he didn't say exactly where he'd get these fake documents (he works in mysterious ways, I suppose). Before I left he also told me that if I had any more questions or needed any more help, I was welcome to come to him again. Dad had told me before that Dumbledore used to be a source of strength and comfort to him during some of the hard times he had to go through, and now I knew exactly what he meant. I don't know what I would've done if it wasn't for the Professor's help.

Of course now that I had everything set up for my stay in the past- or the alternate dimension or whatever- to last indefinitely, I wondered exactly how long it _would_ last. During lunch, I kept thinking that for all I knew, it could be for the rest of my lifetime. I couldn't stop imagining the faces of the friends and the family I never got to say goodbye to. I also wondered whether I'd get to live through the Second War as well as the first one. It didn't sound like the whole ancient rune transportation through different times and dimensions thing was something anyone would figure out how to control anytime soon. And yet..there was that book. Maybe if I found it again, it would have all the necessary answers I needed to get back. I made a mental note to look for it.

All these thoughts kept me rather preoccupied while I ate and so I felt considerably less chatty than I'd normally be. The girls, next to whom I was once again sitting, didn't bother me much but talked about classes and some sort of project they were assigned in Herbology.

Although it was too bad I wasn't in a talkative mood because a few people did come over to meet me: apparently some word had spread that I was a new student. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were among them. They introduced themselves as "the Marauders minus Prongs."

"Prongs is Potter." Lily informed me. "They all have weird nicknames which no one understands."

"So where's your other half? Or quarter or whatever." Mary asked the boys.

"He said something about a headache." Remus explained. "Went to Pomfrey for a cure."

After the meal was over everyone went to class again and I decided to go out for a fly, since I wouldn't have to start classes until the next day. Flying was sort of my thing to do when anything was bothering me, and it usually helped clear my mind.

Making my way across the grounds, I breathed in the crisp autumn air. The wind was unusually gentle for an October day, and a few lazy clouds drifted above – great weather for flying. Of course it was disappointing that my Firebolt 360 wasn't with me, which meant I had no choice but to use one of the school brooms. I could only imagine what those would be like in 1977; they would probably be considered true antiques in my time.

Back home, I played Keeper on the school team since third year, and been Captain since fifth. Flying has been a passion of mine pretty much since I've been old enough to ride a broom. Something about zooming in whichever direction I please, feeling the wind on my face, and seeing the ground tens, or hundreds, of feet below my dangling feet. I guess it's not surprising that I inherited the Quidditch gene; practically my whole family's crazy about the sport. Mom played professionally for a while for the Holyhead Harpies, and from how I've seen Dad play in our family games, I could tell he could've gone professional if he wasn't so busy fighting bad guys and reforming the Ministry.

When I reached the school's broomshed, I picked the best available option, mounted it, and took off toward the Quidditch pitch. I did a few upward-spiraling laps until the grounds, trees, and castle were far enough below me to look like a children's miniature playset. Then I decided to leave the pitch and fly down to skim above the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and after that over the dark waters of the Black Lake. It must've been some hours later by the time I started back toward the broomshed, but before I really got there I noticed a lone figure shooting goals on the pitch, tossing a Quaffle through one of the rings and swooping down to catch it again. It looked like whoever it was might use some company, and I was glad for the opportunity to do some Keeping since I didn't have my Quidditch team anymore.

I recognized the boy as I got nearer. "Hey! You want a Keeper?"

"Sure." James said when I stopped beside him. "If you think you can keep up. You're the transfer student, aren't you?"

"Yeah, Luna Porter."

"Alright, well let's hope you're worthy to join the ranks of us 7th year Gryffindors. We're pretty much the best year of the best house around."

I smiled. "Oh I'm not worried about that. I just hope you won't be too sour after I kick your arse at Quidditch. We'll see how worthy you think I am then."

James raised his eyebrows, grinning. "Perhaps I should introduce myself? James Potter-" he reached out his hand for me to shake it, "-Head Boy, Marauder, and Quidditch Captain of the Gryffindor team."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "I mean I've already heard quite a bit about you and your condition."

He frowned for a moment. "What condition?"

"The one where your head is 'as big as the castle.'"

James gave a short laugh before the hand which wasn't busy holding a Quaffle jumped to hold his skull. "Owwww."

"Are you alright?" I asked, surprised and rather worried. He looked like he was in a good amount of pain, judging by his facial expression.

It took a moment before his hand left the side of his head. "Yeah..yeah, I'm fine now. It's just this headache I've been getting all day. Comes and goes pretty fast, but it's murderous."

"Are you sure it's fine?" Sitting on a broomstick dozens of feet in the air wasn't the best place to be for someone with a murderous headache.

"Well it's gone now." But his brow remained furrowed. "I just wish I knew what's causing it. I got a headache cure from the nurse, but apparently that didn't work.."

"Hm." That sounded even more concerning.

"Anyway." Suddenly his face cleared. "Let's not get distracted, shall we? I'm dying to see whose arse gets kicked." He smirked, tossing the Quaffle from hand to hand, and then added "But not really. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be yours."

I smirked right back and called before zooming up to protect the ring posts, "Alright. I just feel bad that you're gonna have a butt ache as well as a headache by the end of this."

Despite my less-than-humble remarks, I had to admit that my grandfather was a worthy opponent. His throws were almost never straightforward and generally hard to predict, so there were some that I ended up missing. But I was used to going up against skilled players so I still managed to block half, if not more, of his shots, even if most were just by the tips of my fingers. I was at a bit of a disadvantage though, since the Cleansweep Two I was riding felt awfully sluggish compared to my Firebolt and kept drifting slightly to the left. But James also did really well despite playing alone; I could imagine the Gryffindor team must be pretty amazing, if it had James plus two other Chasers shooting.

We continued playing for about half an hour until James called for a stop.

"I'd be all for continuing, but my team's going to be out here any minute now for our practice." He explained.

"Alright." I figured that meant it was time for me to leave the pitch. "Good game, then."

"Yeah." said James. "You are pretty good, by the way. Really good, actually. And I don't just say that to anyone. It's too bad you missed team tryouts."

"Well if you ever need a replacement or something..." I thought of how just several days ago I was a Quidditch team captain, determined get the Cup for Gryffindor in my last year at Hogwarts. But now I would probably spend it watching from the bleachers.

"I'll keep that in mind." James smiled. "What broom do you ride, by the way?"

"Oh, I'm just using a school one."

"_Really_? I mean, with the way you play I'd think you like flying enough to at least have your own broom."

I shrugged. "I used to have one. Not anymore though." And I wouldn't have one for a while now, since it's not like I could buy anything past clothes and other necessities now that I had no family money to support me.

James probably would've asked what happened to my broom if at that moment we didn't spot a group of six figures in Quidditch robes making their way across the grounds to the pitch.

"That'll be my team." said James.

"Right." I nodded. "See you around then?"

"See you around." he said, and gave me a wave before I descended and left the air.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**: So that's chapter 6. I've decided I love putting together James+ Lily Luna + Quidditch. Lol, it's awesome.

By the way, I couldn't decide whether to use the metric system or not since this isn't in the US, until I remembered that wizards use the same weirdass units of measurement as they do in America since they don't like things to be too convenient or something, lol.

And can you guys guess what's wrong with James? I have a wee bit of hinting in there. I wonder if it's obvious or not.

Also, please review. Seriously. I'm not as motivated cuz I've only been getting like one review per chapter (cookies to the mysterious persona who _has_ been reviewing, at least). Not that I'd abandon this story or anything (I'm looking forward to writing too many parts of it to do that), but reviews make me work considerably faster than I would otherwise. Just, you know, take the time to be like "Hey, I'm reading this, and I think [this and this] is cool, though [this and this] could be better. Yeah." Really, it would make my day.


	7. Underhanded Methods

**A****/****N****:** Omg guys, thanks for all your great reviews! I really can't complain anymore. And especially thanks to the frog for my first constructive criticism! I'll definitely try to take some of that into account. Although, I don't think I'll be changing the chapters to include whole miniplots for now (I do have some of those I believe, but it would take to long to post only once I finish one). Until I get good enough to write faster, I'll probably be posting like a scene at a time.) But yeah, this is kinda my first multichapter fic, and I don't have a proofreader or anything, so I really appreciate the advice :)

**Disclaimer****: **Mooooo-mooo moo moo mooooo. (Translation: Potter is not mine.)

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 7: Underhanded Mathods**

After the one-on-one Quidditch game with James I decided to go up to the dorms for a long shower. Dumbledore had organized for a new bed and some necessary materials to be placed for me in the girls' dorm room, so I at least had a change of robes and a toothbrush (the only thing that looked like it wasn't second-hand). I realized, after I dried myself off and got dressed, that the robes were a few inches too short and a bit worn at the collar. I didn't mind for the most part the state of my new things since l never thought shabbiness is something particularly shameful, but it was still a big change for me. My family had never had monetary problems, and I was used to my things being clean and in good condition. This new appearance, which had me looking a little uncouth, with my socks peeking out from under my hem, just made me look and feel all the less like myself.

No one else was there when I finished dressing since it was about time for dinner, though there was a fluffy, lilac-colored cat which lay on one of the beds next to mine. It stared at me as I tried on my "new" robes, looking all judgmental and uncaring at the same time, the way that cats do.

I was pretty hungry from the afternoon's physical activity, but before I went down to eat with the rest of the students I wanted to take a moment to myself. I pulled the old Marauders' Map out of my bag- one of the few possessions from home I still had with me. It was strange seeing all the little dots with the unfamiliar names (although there were a few surnames I did recognize). The Marauders and my dorm mates were already down in the Great Hall, and my dot, "Lily Potter," was among the very few still up in Gryffindor Tower.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. The Map never lied; whatever my new identity might be, it still showed the name I was given at birth. And if the Marauders had the same map..

I jumped up from the bed, suddenly panicked. I couldn't let them see it. _No __no __no_. Whatever it took, I had to keep them from looking at that map. Merlin knows that could give me a lot of problems. So I'd have to take it, somehow without their noticing. The only thing I could think to do right away was to search their in dorm. Hopefully they didn't keep it hidden too well, as it would usually look like no more than a blank parchment.

How likely was it that I was already too late? Probably not that much, since the boys were at dinner and not trying to investigate what the dot "Lily Potter" was supposed to mean.

I glanced at the Map again to make sure all four of their names were really there in the Great Hall. I had to act quickly, in case they were planning on using the Map tonight.

Luckily there was no one in the common room, so it wasn't too difficult sneaking up the boys' stairs and to the door marked with the words "Seventh Years." Below that was another label, also engraved into the wood, though in different handwriting: "The Marauders."

I bit my lip before reaching for the handle. Honestly, I felt bad planning to steal from them. Sure I wasn't always one to follow rules, and I've been on quite a few covert missions at Hogwarts in my day, but I've never stolen anything which wasn't supposed to be mine in the first place.

Yet at the same time I knew I had to do this. Dumbledore told me to keep my real identity secret, and here I was in danger of being discovered on the first day. Perhaps it was possible I could tamper with the map and make it show my name differently, and then I could give it back. With that reassuring thought I turned the handle and entered.

And then everything went black.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"-Hello? I think she's coming around. Hey, new girl, you hear me?"

The voice penetrated the thick fog which enveloped my consciousness and I slowly opened my eyes. I was looking into the faces of the four Marauders, who were bent over me with strange looks on their faces, as though they were trying not to laugh. I also noticed something didn't feel right. Something felt..sticky.

"Our Anti-Intruder Protection Charm knocked you out."

I slowly sat up, realizing in horror that I was covered in something gooey, horribly smelly, and rather green-brown in color.

"Our Anti-Intruder Protection Charm also covered you in essence of Flobberworm." Remus' forehead was wrinkled apologetically, though a small smile still escaped on his lips.

"Don't worry though, it comes off easy." James told me. "With a Cleaning Charm or two."

"Which is why I think we should've gone with the Fungiface Potion." put in Sirius. In contrast with the other three, his grin was entirely unsympathetic.

I could feel my face heating up from the horror of being caught, and perhaps also from the embarrassment of having to face the situation covered in Flobberworm. Though, judging by the boys' expressions, which ranged between concern and amusement, they weren't very angry.

But despite that, the next thing that Sirius said was "So then. Why were you trying to sneak into our dormitory?"

"I, uh-" _Bloody __hell_. What was I supposed to say? I couldn't exactly tell them the truth since that would mean revealing the secret I had broke in to keep safe in the first place. I stalled for a moment by getting to my feet. Surprisingly, James reached out a hand to help me, even though I had goo all over mine.

And as he wiped his fingers on Remus' sleeve, James said. "Honestly, Padfoot. She's new and it's her first day in the castle. Obviously it was a simple mistake."

Well then. That worked. I made a mental note to be extra nice to James for saving my butt. The excuse was so perfect I couldn't believe I didn't think of it in the first place. I guess I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to be familiar with the school yet. Still, I caught on fast. "Oh. This isn't the girls' dorm, is it?"

"No; it does say 'The Marauders' on our door." Peter told me.

"Oh." I said again, looking sheepish. "I must've overlooked that."

"Hm. A bit thick then?" Sirius asked as a glob of slime dripped from my nose. I made a mental note _not_ to be nice to _him_.

"It was a simple mistake." I repeated James' words, trying not to glare only because I knew it wasn't in my best interest at the moment. And I don't think I could've looked threatening in such a state if I tried. Ridiculous was probably the only word to sum up how I looked.

"We're really sorry about the mess." said Remus, though he still couldn't keep down his smile. "It's not harmful or anything. Actually, Essense of Flobberworm has quite a few healing properties."

"Right." I said. Wasn't that comforting. "I think I still prefer to go wash it off though."

The boys let me go without further questioning, even suggesting a spell I should use for removing the slime.

Although the trip to the girls' dorm wasn't exactly long, there was still a fair number of people in the common room now that dinner was over. I got quite a few snickers and stares, as well as some pointing. Well, at least I made a colorful first impression on my new Gryffindor house mates. A green-brown, shiny impression, in specific.

It turned out Lily and Mary were also back from dinner.

"Luna! What in the name of Merlin..?" was Lily's reaction.

Mary, who was reading a magazine on her bed, looked up at Lily's exclamation and started laughing."What exactly did you miss dinner _doing_?"

"I, uh, tried to enter the Marauders' dorms cause I mixed up the boys and girls staircases." I explained briefly and headed straight for the bathroom. Mary held her nose as I passed.

Before I closed the door behind me I heard Lily say, "Like I said this morning- should've watched out for Potter turning you green."

The goo itself wasn't too hard to get off once I used my wand and liberal amounts of soap, although the smell seemed to linger in my hair a bit even after five cycles of lather, rinse, repeat. I just hoped it wouldn't be strong enough for people to notice tomorrow for my first day of class.

As I stood in the shower and let the water run over me, I also thought of how my original mission had been unsuccessful and the problem remained. It looked like trying to steal the Map away from the boys wouldn't be the fastest way to stop them from using it. They were obviously too carefully guarded.

I did, however, have another idea. It was still underhanded and I liked it even less than my previous method. But even though it was something that I would normally _never_ do, as it seriously went against my personal code of honor, I still understood that in this case I'd be playing with fate if I let the Marauders keep the Map. It felt heavy to have that kind of responsibility on my shoulders, but these weren't the silly little games I used to play at school with my friends, even if being covered in Flobberworm still made it feel that way. Because really, if I let the boys see my name and find out who I am, who knows what would happen with me and my situation, with them and their lives, with Voldemort and the war.

I did think of the Memory Charms I'd used the night before, considering if I could use them a second time if all else fails. But I knew that doing them _again_ would be even more likely to cause brain damage, especially since it would be more difficult when I wouldn't have witnessed the memory I'd want to erase.

So I really had no choice. That very night, before I would once again go to the kitchens to make up the dinner I'd missed, I'd have to go down to Filch's office, tell him about the Marauders' Map, and have him confiscate it.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**: So of course the Marauders wouldn't leave their dorm unprotected, with all the valuable things they'd keep in there! Especially since they surely have enemies. Well, now Lily Luna knows not to underestimate them, lol.

But btw guys, I won't be able to post again for a couple of weeks since tomorrow I'm leaving to visit my internet-less family in Russia. I'll definitely try to have something up later in August though, when I come back. Hope ya'll keep reading then!


	8. First Day of Class

**A****/****N**: Hey guys, I'm still alive! And so's this story since now I've, er, gotten my "rear into gear" (lol). It's so good to know some of you still care about it, so that's why I'm once again taking the time to work on this here thing. And cuz it's fun! Seriously, wish I didn't have homework and all that miserable stuff getting in the way of fun so much.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 8: ****First ****Day ****of ****Class**

The next morning, as I poured maple syrup on my food, I saw Filch saying something to the Marauders. And I had a pretty fair guess what it was. The boys' faces told me it had a lot to do with what I'd said to the caretaker the previous night.

"Looks like the Marauders are in trouble." said Dorcas, who was sitting next to me.

"When are they not?" Emma pointed out. She didn't even bother glancing in the boys' direction. Actually, it looked like most people weren't paying attention to what was going on where the Marauders were sitting.

I, however, felt too bad to ignore it as Filch and the boys passed us, most likely on the way to his office.

"We didn't even do anything!" said Peter, annoyed.

"I didn't even get to finish my pancake." James rolled his eyes.

Though she didn't turn her head to see them pass, Lily said once the boys were gone, "Poor Potter. The school authority is such an inconvenience to him."

So, it looked like my previous night's endeavor would be successful. I had told Filch some lie about overhearing the boys planning a prank, and then witnessing them being suspiciously overprotective over a folded parchment. That seemed like the best way to get it confiscated and to protect my identity. But I hated enduring Filch's slimy appreciation, which he generally reserves for anyone depraved enough to be on good terms with him. Never before had I had to deal with Filch being nice to me. It was considerably worse than having him threaten to hang me up by the ankles.

At least, I didn't think the Marauders would get into real trouble, since Filch didn't have any evidence of the prank they were supposedly planning. But, knowing Filch, he would go through certain precautions anyway.

Sure enough, later on during Charms, the first class of the day, I heard Remus saying, "That was absolutely ridiculous! He pretty much took all of my parchment. I don't even have anything to take notes on now."

"Take notes? Bloody hell Moony, he took the _Map_."

The boys had come in ten minutes late and taken their seats at a table behind me, so I could conveniently hear exactly what they said while most of the class practiced reviving charms on wilted plants.

"Shhh. Do you want everyone to hear?" asked James.

Sirius replied with "Does it even matter? We don't have it anymore, so is it still a secret?"

"Well we might still be able to get it back."

"Steal back the Map without the help of the Map? Is that even worth it now? If Filch catches us in his office, he'll skin us alive." Remus pointed out.

"What I'm wondering, is how he knew to confiscate it in the first place." said Sirius as I kept my ears trained on the conversation. My potted violet was still hopelessly brown, since I wasn't paying it much attention right then.

"He did take all our _folded_ parchments." commented Peter. "He vaguely knew what to look for."

"Someone must have tipped him off." Sirius' voice had a bite of anger. "How would he know otherwise?"

"I guess we weren't careful enough." Remus replied. "maybe we didn't notice and someone saw us using the Map. In the common room or in the library.."

"Yeah. Except we did notice, didn't we? Remember last week?" Sirius paused for a moment. "Evans came up to us to tell Prongs it was time for rounds and we didn't have time to wipe the Map."

"What? Don't be stupid." said James automatically. "It's wouldn't be her. I mean, I can't believe you think she'd do that!"

"Wouldn't she?" asked Sirius calmly.

"I don't think that Lily would do that." Peter put in. "Though she _is_ the only one who saw it."

"Just because she might've seen us with a map, doesn't mean she'd report us." Remus countered. "We weren't doing anything she'd disapprove of and she's not the type to report someone for no reason."

"Who knows how Evans thinks. But we do know that she isn't exactly honey and milk when it comes to dealing with us."

"Padfoot, it wasn't Lily." James said.

"Can you prove that? She has told on us in the past."

"That's because we transfigured her cat into a lion and it nearly ate a first year."

"Still. She doesn't like us, and she's the only one besides us who could know about the Map."

"Padfoot, stop being absurd."

"You know what Prongs? You should ask her."

"Yeah? Fine. I know what the answer will be already, but if I do will you give up accusing her?"

"Despite her inadequacies when it comes to following rules, I don't think Evans is a liar."

Then they switched subjects.

Even though I'd had the Reviving Charm practically mastered back in my old class, I'd only managed to give my violet a green tinge by the end of the lesson.

Professor Flitwick looked at my mostly dead plant and said with some sympathy, "I know you have a lot on your plate adjusting to Hogwarts, Miss Porter, but we're going to start a new topic next lesson. It appears you have some catching up to do, so I suggest you do some extra practicing with this charm. Perhaps get yourself a tutor."

I nodded, even though I had very little intention of actually doing the extra work. Obviously I was just distracted by the difficult situations coming one after the other. I hadn't expected Lily to be blamed for the loss of the Map. It made me feel all the more guilty. And then having James and Sirius argue definitely wasn't part of the plan. But what was I supposed to do? It looked like everything would work out, anyway, since James would ask her and figure out she had nothing to do with it. It didn't help me feel better about getting Filch involved, but it was some comfort to see how James was sure of her innocence. I wondered if Lily knew how loyal he could apparently be when it came to defending her.

I still wasn't in the best mood by the time lunch came around. Knowing that I had told on the boys, sitting there in my slightly frayed, faded robes, not having Emily or Hugo to tease me and joke around, I felt like I wasn't even myself anymore. Normally, if I got in a bad mood, at least I'd have my friends there to make me laugh again. But now, no one even really knew me, and most of the conversations that I had had thus far included lots of lying on my part. So even though normally being friendly wouldn't have been so much of an effort for me, I couldn't bring myself to be interested in the girls' conversations about a Potions assignment and Mary's love life (both topics were too complicated for me to follow anyway). Really, I'd never felt so alone.

But at least Lily made an extra effort to be friendly with me. She asked me how I liked my classes so far and offered to help me in Charms since she witnesses my failed attempts with the flower and Flitwick's comment at the end.

"It's alright." I said, "I don't really think I need the help. I've done Reviving Charms just fine before. It's just that I'm a little overwhelmed today. You know, trying to get used to being here. Haven't really been concentrating right."

"Right." she said, "I bet it's difficult, being a new student. Especially since it's our last year and all."

I didn't know anybody in my afternoon Ancient Runes class, but it turned out that didn't matter since the Professor gave me a diagnostic test and sat me down in a corner away from the class to work on it. I answered it as best I could, though not all the questions made sense and I didn't get anywhere near finishing.

After that I had Herbology with Lily and Dorcas. It was alright, but relatively uneventful. The class hadn't yet gotten to studying man-eating plants, which is what Professor Longbottom had been going over before I left.

When we were walking back, however, I saw a group of fourth years or so with a smaller boy by the lake. It looked a bit suspicious, like some sort of confrontation.

"Hey." I stopped walking and pointed out the situation to Dorcas and Lily. "Looks like something's not right there."

"Merlin!" said Lily angrily when she saw the boy get pushed by one of the bullies, and stalked off towards the scene. I followed too, with Dorcas right behind.

"Hey! Hey, what's going on there?!" Lily yelled as we approached.

"We're just trying to figure something out." said one of the bigger students in a none too friendly way. There were five of them, and I noticed all their robes showed Slytherin badges.

"Yeah? Well you should've figured out that pushing around another student would land you in detention. Which one of you did it?" asked Lily, looking rather threatening herself.

"No one pushed anyone." said one of the Slytherin girls in an honest voice.

"That's not what we saw." I spoke up. These were some conniving little fourth years, having the audacity to lie to the Head Girl about bullying a student. It was perfectly clear that's what they were doing, too, since the younger boy's face still showed a hint of fear.

"I'm giving you each detention." said Lily, her voice stern, though I could hear a bit of anger too. "For lying and for disrespecting a fellow student."

"What?" one of the Slytherins protested. "But I didn't even do anything!"

"Since none of you are willing to admit what happened, you're all getting the same punishment." Lily replied, her gaze hard. Then she said to the Slytherin girl, whom she apparently recognized, "Gibbon. I want you to write me a list of everyone present here. Owl it to me tonight."

Gibbon scowled.

Lily turned to the younger boy and said, her tone considerably softer, "We're going back up to the castle. Are you coming with us?"

He nodded, and began walking away, avoiding looking at the Slytherins. Lily, Dorcas, and I turned after him.

We weren't too far when a shout of "Mudblood!" came from behind us.

Lily stopped in her steps, and turned around. Then she yelled, "Ten points from Slytherin for name calling!" And then she kept walking like nothing happened.

"Merlin's beard, those were some rude little buggers." I said as the three of us walked in step. The younger boy had already disappeared into the castle. "I can't believe they called you that."

"What, 'Mudblood?'" Lily asked, her tone hard. "You do know I'm Muggleborn?"

"Well yeah." I said, a bit confused. "But I mean, the word they used for it! Really. _Rude_ little buggers."

"It's not that surprising." said Lily in the same tone. "The word Mudblood's become a common part of the Hogwarts vernacular now-a-days."

"Oh." I said.

"I hear it at least once a day.." admitted Dorcas.

"Make it five times, for me." said Lily as we walked through the castle doors.

I didn't know what to say. In my time, it was rather rare to hear anyone speak it. Of course, some students would still insult you or use provoking language. But I'd never personally heard someone being called a Mudblood...

But I guess that sort of bigotry was something I'd get used to, living during Voldemort's war. I'd learn that really, it was just a hint of the intangible evil which loomed over Hogwarts in those days.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N****:** Aaaand yeah. This is actually half the chapter I was originally writing, but then it got long enough to become its own chapter, and a natural place to end it just kinda came along.

BTW, I know the bullying Slytherins bit is a tad cliche, but I feel I need to show some of these goings on at Hogwarts before I get more into the romancey stuff. It's important for the overall atmosphere. And all the bullies were Slytherins not cuz I meant to oversimplify all Slytherins as having nasty characters, but because I figure there's especially a lot of peer pressure in that house to be hating on Muggle blood.

Reviews = Virtual cookies. Or virtual cakes. Or virtual cats. Just, you know, good stuff.


	9. After Dinner That Night

**A****/****N**: Hey guys. I'm here and so the next chapter's here.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 9: ****After ****Dinner ****That ****Night**

After dinner that night I was sitting on the same window seat I'd been on two days ago, according to my personal sense of time anyway, because technically two days ago for me would be in fifty years. It was where I'd opened that fateful book and took out that strange key.

Lily was on her bed nearby, writing a letter home. Her cat, apparently named Socrates, or Socks, purred next to her. It turned out that Socks' strange color was due to a simple charm Lily liked to play around with every now and then. Currently, socks was a bright yellow. Emma and Dorcas were in the dorm, too, busy with schoolwork.

I'd just finished scanning through a bunch of class notes Lily had been thoughtful enough to give me, but I couldn't bring myself to actually pay attention to what they said. I kept feeling like I wanted to go down to the common room and find Hugo to play a game of exploding snap or to just have a nice chat with Emily. But I knew instead I would just see all the other students laughing with their own longtime friends, and the best I'd have to hope for is someone coming up to ask me about "my life back in the States" and "as the new girl, how did I like Hogwarts?" I really wasn't in the mood for that. I just wished I could tell someone what actually happened.

I suppose I was just waiting until it'd be late enough for the library to close. I had decided I'd go down to look for the ancient runes book about portals. Of course I'd have to wait until there'd be no one there to witness me snooping through the Restricted Section, which is why I had a bit of time to kill.

I did have a bunch of work I could look over from the day's classes... but what if the book was really there? What if I could just go home anytime I'd want then? I wasn't going to risk studying for nothing while there was still hope to go back to my normal life and my normal classes.

I leaned my forehead against the cold window pane and felt it drain at my heat. It wasn't a very pleasant sensation, but it put a pause on all the miserable thoughts that I'd had brewing around in my head all day. It was just nice to be distracted, to just stop and feel. Whatever else might be different now, cold still felt the same.

"Homesick?" I looked up to see Dorcas standing next to me.

"Yeah, a bit." I said, rather surprised she was talking to me. I mean, I got the impression that Dorcas was a bit of the timid type. She was better at blending into the background than the others, with a quiet voice, slumpy shoulders, and very light colored hair.

"You can always write to them." She said.

Well not really. I couldn't imagine it'd be easy to zip an owl back and forth between dimensions.

"I'd really like to write to my friends," I admitted, "but they're too far away to really be reached by owl."

"Oh, right," said Dorcas, lowering herself to perch at the edge of the window seat next to me. "I suppose it would be hard on the poor bird to get across the Atlantic..but still. You could write to them anyways, even if you can't send it."

I shrugged. "Yeah."

"Sometimes if you have something on your mind that you can't say to anyone, I think just writing and figuring out your thoughts really helps sometimes."

I looked at her. She wasn't really meeting my eyes, but seriously, she was being a bit _too _perceptive.

"Hmm." I said. "Maybe I'll do that."

Honestly, I wasn't generally one for diaries or whatever, I'd take a conversation companion over a piece of parchment any day. But perhaps in my situation, a piece of parchment could be my only confidant.

"Thanks, Dorcas." I said sincerely.

She gave me a small smile and left me to my thoughts again, which weren't quite so gloomy now that I felt like I had at least one genuine conversation all day, even if it was a bit short.

There was still half an hour left until curfew, so I decided that then was as good a time as any other to take Dorcas's advice. So I moved to the desk, and took up a quill.

_Dear Emily and Hugo,_

_In case you're both wondering where I went, I'm still at Hogwarts, just kinda trapped in a parallel dimension, and in the year 1977. Lovely, yeah? Unfortunately, the transportation system between our parallel universes doesn't appear to currently be in operation, so I'm gonna have to hang out here for a while, even though this trip was unexpected and I didn't even get to pack an extra supply of underwear. It's a bit depressing because I miss you guys and I don't even have my Firebolt. Plus I think Eric Trueman was flirting with me last Herbology lesson, and now I might have to wait a really really long time to find out for sure. On the bright side, I don't have to do that Potions essay on Golpalott's Fourth Law anymore. You two have fun with that!_

_By the way, guess who were the first people I met! The Marauders. They're as awesome as the Map suggests. Well, if I'm to be honest they're also kinda gits, especially Sirius Black, but I suppose one can forgive that considering their mischief-making genius. Unfortunately I've been too busy dealing with the difficult business of keeping my true identity secret to actually try to hang out with them. I mean, I did get to toss a Quaffle with my grandpa- that was awesome- but other than that our encounters have been ending in me wiping their memories, or making a narrow escape covered in Flobberworm._

_My Grandma Lily- you know, the one I was named after- is here too, sitting on her bed across the room in fact. She fairly nice to me, but I can't say the same about her feelings for Grandpa. It seems like he's the bane of her existence, a little bit, and this morning before Charms I saw her make a doodle of him being simultaneously thrown off a tower, hit with a bludger, and eaten by a giant fire-breathing rat (or maybe it was a dragon. My grandma's artistic skill is a bit lacking and it was hard to tell.) I suppose the two of them have a sour history. I'll ask her about that in all seriousness some time, because they're obviously meant to be together. It just appears there're some issues that need a bit of sorting out first. Maybe I can help, I dunno._

_So tell Mum and Dad not to worry. I'll be alright here, especially with Dumbledore around. He's been a big help._

_Your friend, Lily_

_P.S. Hugo. What's this I hear of you going on a date with a Hufflepuff? Seriously. Stop being a wanker. You and Em should just snog already._

_P.P.S. Love you guys._

Writing that out and imagining their faces and reactions did make me feel better. But since it wasn't anything meant to actually be read (otherwise I wouldn't have dared to put the snogging part in. Em would've murdered me), I folded up the parchment before the ink had time to dry and vanished it with a spell. Couldn't leave that sort of thing lying around, that's for sure.

But now it was ten minutes before curfew and I had to leave while I could still make a plausible excuse. So I stood up and said, "Oh no! I think I left my hairclip in the bathroom on the fifth floor! I'll go get it and be right back."

"You sure you won't get lost?" asked Lily, concerned.

"Nah, I remember where it is." I said, and then I was out the door. Of course I probably wouldn't be back for at least an hour, but this whole being new and getting lost thing made a great excuse for all sorts of stuff.

I didn't go straight to my destination because I wanted to wait until the librarian would leave. Meanwhile I had time to wander around a little, so I took out the Map. I saw that, indeed, Irma Pince was now the only one in the library, probably doing a few last errands before closing.

A thought came to mind that I should check to make sure the Marauders weren't trying to steal back their map from Filch's office, so I unfolded the parchment further to check out what was going on in the rest of the castle. And thankfully, the only one in Filch's office was the caretaker himself.

However, there were two dots a floor below that, in the dungeons, that caught my eye. My suspicion was raised not only because of their names - _James __Potter_ and _Severus __Snape_- but because of the way they were edging around each other, keeping a bit of a distance.

Of course the name Severus Snape was more than familiar to me, since he was a sort of prominent figure in Dad's childhood. A very interesting one, too. From what I was told, he was an enormous arse of a Potions professor and didn't exactly have the most pleasant of dispositions, but he turned out to be pretty well-intentioned in the end since he spied on Voldemort and died trying to help Dad and everything. Apparently, he had been close with my grandmother in their earlier years at Hogwarts, and still cared about her a lot even after they stopped talking. So he ended up being a hero and Mum and Dad named Al after him and all that.

But as far as I knew, he'd been on rather bad terms with my grandfather. So seeing their dots on the Map like that felt like a reason to worry.

Especially when, in the next moment, the dot _Severus __Snape _shot up halfway down the corridor, stopping when it hit the wall.

So I began sprinting, heading down to the dungeons.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what I'd do once I got there, or even whom I'd help. I just didn't want them both ending up in the hospital wing with brain damage or something. Really! Dueling in the corridors with no one around was a pretty bad idea. I can't pretend to be a very good example of proper school conduct myself, but I've never gotten downright _violent_. Not_ blast people down the hall_ violent. Did they really hate each other that much? What in Merlin's name was going on down there?

Well, I was going to find out.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**:

I know there's been a lot of stuff about Lily Luna feeling uncomfortable and trying to adjust. I mean, I think it's natural for her to be overwhelmed, but I do want to start getting to the other stuff a bit. Cuz there's good stuff planned, good stuff ;)

Oh and I hope ya'll liked the little letter. It wasn't actually planned and I know it's kinda summary, but I feel like it was nice to have a bit of a change of tone. Especially nice for Lily Luna.

I have a bit of trouble with her actually, because she's very unlike myself (mostly that she's more social, while my idea of a perfect social life is owning cats. And she's also supposed to be a bit more of the act first think later type, which really doesn't come naturally to me) But oh well. I'll get to know her better as she continues telling the story.

Thoughts?


	10. Sides and Badges

**A****/****N**: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! :) It was giving me a really hard time at first, but I ended up having a bit of fun with it once I came up with a better way to approach it.

And as a reminder, Lily Luna and James are obviously on good terms at this point, cuz they played Quidditch together. To them, that's like, sacred. Lol.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 10: Sides and Badges**

I hurried to the dungeon corridor where I'd seen James and Severus Snape, taking secret passages and short cuts along the way to avoid meeting anyone. Before I went down the last staircase, I paused to catch my breath a little so that I could pass off my being there as simply coincidental. just that whole got lost excuse would probably work fine.

Then I heard a shout from downstairs, and decided not to wait any longer.

As soon as I reached the dungeon corridor I had to dodge a mass of flying sparks.

"Oi!" I exclaimed, and whipped out my wand as I ran up to the boys, "What's going on down here?"

James spun around when he heard me, "Luna? What're you - _immobulus__! _- doing here?"

He was bald.

_Looks like Snape got a shot in_, I thought, amused. But I have a decent sense of priorities so instead of commenting on that I said, "The question is what in Merlin's name are you two-"

But I didn't finish because right then one of Snape's spells hit me square in the chest, and I fell back with an _oomf_ as it hit me.

_The __hell__!_? I wasn't planning on taking sides, but did the bugger just shoot that right at me?

"Luna! Are you ok?" asked James before casting a stunner in Snape's direction.

"Fine." I wheezed from the floor, rather embarrassed and my eyes tearing up a little because my palms and my butt hurt where they'd hit the floor.

As I got back on my feet, Snape yelled with a sneer, "Looks like your new housemate isn't too quick witted in a duel, Potter!"

My eyes narrowed and I clutched my wand tighter in my hand. So he _had_ aimed at me on purpose when he shot that spell then! What had I ever done to him? I think I could see now why my grandpa wasn't on friendly terms with this git.

And unfortunately for Snape, I _was_ quick witted, _especially_ in a duel. I'd been in a dueling club for the better part of my time at Hogwarts, and I've had a lot of practice. I just hadn't been aware that I was dueling him. Until now.

So I slashed my wand through the air in two diagonals, using a move Dad had developed himself and taught us. He called it double casting because it lets you shoot two spells practically at the same time, making the second one really hard to deflect unless your opponent's got a _really_ strong shield charm going. So my first spell was a simple stunner, and for the second one I chose the Bat-Bogey Hex, which, looking back on it, might've been a little mean, but, well, my butt really hurt.

And just as expected, Snape blocked the stunner but the hex hit him right on target.

It was pretty effective, in fact unusually so. I guess it was because Snape's nose was rather large and there must've been an especially high number of bogeys in there. They also must've been pretty impressive in size because the bats they transformed into certainly were.

As Snape stumbled backward, clearly disoriented, his head no longer visible behind the mass of bats swarming around it. He was yelling something and trying to whack away the bats with his hands, though anyone who's ever felt the wrath of the Bat-Bogies would know _that_'s not a good idea because it gets them aggressive and that's when they start biting.

Beside me, James was laughing his head off. And honestly, I found the sight more than a bit amusing myself.

"Brilliant- Merlin! Bloody brilliant!" James exclaimed when we finally stopped laughing, wiping tears from his eyes.

"It's one of my favorites." I shrugged, still smiling.

"You've really got to teach it to me sometime."

"Yeah, course." I said, happy at how awesomely I was getting along with my grandfather.

"And, you know, thanks for helping out."

"Anytime."

It was almost a sweet moment, except James was still bald, plus Snape's angry shouts and the bat screeches were pretty loud in the background. It looked like he was attempting to zap them down with his wand now.

"We should probably get out of here though," said James. "Before any other Slytherins come. Their common room's right around the corner."

We left Snape to deal with his predicament. I almost felt bad for him about that. Almost. But not really because apart from the ache in my backside, my palms were also burning a bit and clearly in need of some of healing magic.

"Over here," James indicated a hidden passageway once we left the dungeons.

"Wow." I said once he pulled back the tapestry, remembering who I was supposed to be and that I should act surprised. Really though it was the same passage way I'd taken to get down there. "This castle is really amazing."

Once we exited the narrow passage and started walking side-by-side again, James said, "Seriously. Thanks for your help back there. And that spell, awesome."

"Why did you guys start fighting in the first place?" I could see a bruise fading in on his forehead, above his left eyebrow.

"Because Snape's a Slytherin creep." he said very seriously. "You've probably noticed that the Slytherins aren't the friendliest folk here at Hogwarts. As a general rule, you should avoid them."

"I guess." I shrugged. From my experience, Slytherins definitely weren't the _friendliest_, but they were alright once you got to know them. I dated a bloke from Slytherin once, but we broke up after us Gryffindors kicked Slytherin's arse in a Quidditch game. They were generally our biggest Quidditch rivals, and the guy's fragile ego just couldn't take a little teasing on my part. So yeah, Slytherins _were_ competitive. And honestly I have heard a few bad things said of them in my family.. Especially by Uncle Ron, now that I thought about it. Still, avoiding them entirely seemed a bit much, didn't it? I wanted James to explain. "What exactly's so bad about them?"

"For one, they never miss a chance to get back at us Gryffindors. They just really resent us for being better than them, so approaching a group of them alone is generally a bad idea." James warned me. "Also, they all buy into the whole pureblood supremacy thing. Really, they're the worst sort of idiots. You're not Muggleborn, are you?"

"No, just have a grandma who was." I said, slightly absent-minded because I was thinking about what he was saying. It did seem like Slytherin house was under the most influence from the wrong side of the war... All those students I'd seen earlier in the day teasing the boy and calling Lily a Mudblood were Slytherin. I guess it wasn't about Quidditch rivalries anymore. I guess that now, Slytherins really were dangerous...

"Well as long as they don't know about your grandma, your probably safe from the worst of them." James continued. "But you're still a Gryffindor, so don't be surprised if the buggers go out of their way to make things unpleasant for you."

I was frowning, remembering something Aunt Hermione had told us before, about the house rivalries being a lot worse during Voldemort's time than during my generation at Hogwarts. And I realized, maybe that's why Snape had attacked me so readily. I guess me being a Gryffindor and him being a Slytherin had automatically put us on opposing sides. My Gryffindor badge must've chosen my side for me.

"So that's why you two attacked each other?" I said softly. "I didn't know the house rivalries were that bad."

"Yeah." Nodded James, and suddenly his voice was even more severe. "It's all gotten worse since You-Know-Who's been coming into the picture, too. The Slytherins are buying right into his bullshit." He paused, hostility showing on his face now. "I'm pretty sure Snape's a Death Eater now. One of You-Know-You's little followers, you know. He as good as told me that tonight."

Oh. I guess that explained it, why James attacked him.

Well, I knew that was supposed to happen, actually. Severus Snape was supposed to be a real Death Eater at the beginning. And although I knew that eventually he'll be a hero on our side, for now he'd be acting as an enemy, so I would have to treat him as one.

I wondered _why_ he'd become a Death Eater, since obviously he had a bit of good inside him somewhere. Why would he join someone like Voldemort? I thought, perhaps at least in part, his Slytherin badge chose that.

"By the way," James turned to me suddenly, anger gone from his face now, "Can you, er, do me a favor and not mention that whole incident to Lily? She would really disapprove. She doesn't - BLOODY OW!"

He stopped, hunched over clutching his head again.

I stopped too, startled at his outcry. It was just like before, at the Quidditch pitch.

He moaned, still holding his head.

"Umm..are you ok?" I asked tentatively, unsure of what to do. It looked like he was really in pain.

James didn't answer but slowly looked up at me again.

Then he said, "Sorry? Who- who are you?"

I stared wide-eyed, suddenly hit with the realization why James was having such bad headaches. I had totally forgotten to worry about it, with all the other things going on! I hadn't even thought to make sure nothing went wrong with my Memory Charms!

"Wait, oh. Luna. I knew that." James spoke again, his forehead furrowed. "Sorry. Wow, I really blanked out there for a moment. These bloody headaches! They're just getting worse."

"Um." I said, panicking a little, but still coming up with a plan. "Hey, I think I'm gonna stop by the hospital wing before getting back to the tower. Get a potion for my palms." I held my hands up for him to see the damage the dungeon floor had done to them.

"Oh, well I'll come too." he offered. "To keep you company, you know, make sure you don't get lost in the castle. Unfortunately, Pomfrey doesn't actually have anything to help me."

"Nah, I- uh- also have this rash- on my shoulder- and I kinda want her to take a look at it too." He raised an eyebrow so I added, for emphasis, "It's green." Really, I was working on the fly here. "It might take awhile for her to diagnose and I don't want you to wait too long."

"Alright." He seemed to believe me for the most part. "I hope it's not from the Flobberworm stuff. Sorry about that again."

"Should've looked were I was going." I shrugged.

James, trying to be helpful, gave me a bunch of directions to the hospital wing before walking off, to which I nodded along to as though I cared. The second he was out-of-sight though I started off towards the library, which was of course going to be my destination all along, though now I had a different reason to go there.

It looked like I'd be spending my night finding out how to fix a bad Memory Charm, and the ancient runes books would have to wait.

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><p><strong>AN**:

Poor Snape, he's too fun too make fun of, lol. I just can't help it, even though I do rather like him.

Tehe.

What do you guys think?


	11. A Sincere Conversation

**Chapter**** 11**: **A ****Sincere ****Conversation**

By the time I got back to the dorm room it was half past eleven, which wasn't actually that late relative to some of the nights I've had in my time, but I realized that my new dorm mates would probably notice and I might have to explain myself.

As expected, the first thing said when I entered the dorm was, "Finally! We were going to send out a search party you know!"

"We actually went down to the common room to ask the Marauders to help, since they've got experience with the whole breaking curfew thing, but then Potter said he saw you out there and that you went to the hospital wing." Emma explained.

"Oh," I said, "Yeah, I kinda made a few detours on my trip. Sorry if you guys were worried."

"Detours? You do know curfew was over two hours ago?" Lily looked at me pointedly.

"I know. There was just something I had to do." And that was true, though perhaps very vague. I felt a bit bad brushing them off like that without explaining anything, and it definitely was no way to make friends. But a person can have all sorts of reasons to visit to the hospital wing that she doesn't have to divulge to her dorm mates. I hoped that's how the girls felt, anyway.

"Well next time, one of us will come with you." Emma said. I was about to seriously protest - who did she think they were, my nannies? - but then she added darkly, "Everyone knows you shouldn't go out alone after dinner. Not these days."

I frowned. This sounded familiar. Wasn't that what James had said to me the night I'd arrived?

"There've been some bad incidents." Dorcas looked at me grimly. "Just over a week ago, a boy was attacked in the hallway. They broke his wand, carved the word _Mudblood_ into his chest."

"And they still don't know who did it." Lily said. "They were masked."

I sank down onto my bed, slowly. I had no idea it was that bad.. Of course I'd witnessed the whole pureblood superiority attitude being displayed around school, which was weird enough for me, but this..

"Sounds like the Death Eaters." I said quietly.

"It's probably not them directly." Lily reasoned. "Horrible as it is, it's still too amateur for You-Know-Who -"

"He's got better things to do than scare kids." said Emma ironically.

"- But it does seem like he's got some wannabe followers inside these walls."

I nodded slowly. "I'll remember that next time."

But I knew that wouldn't stop me from going out again. I _did_ have the Map, an advantage the girls knew nothing about, and I've never had a problem taking care of myself. I'd just have to be extra cautious, and super sneaky the next time I leave.

It's not like I was doing it for fun, anyway. I had important things to do, like making sure there was a way to fix whatever brain damage my Memory Charm had done to James. As though I could've slept soundly without figuring that out first.

Thankfully, there turned out to be a potion. It would be fast-acting, but not too easy to brew and I had no idea where to get a few of the ingredients. That had me worrying for a while, until I realized that I still have one person to whom I could always go for help: Dumbledore.

I was also feeling a tad guilty for causing the whole thing, thinking maybe I'd messed up on the spell or something. But the book explained pretty well that when the subject has a strong emotional connection to the memory, problems are likely to occur when something reminds them of it. So it made a lot of sense now. Every time James thought of me and Lily at the same time, the memories the charm was suppressing would try to come back, causing the headaches. And one important point was that they get progressively worse.

So after an all too short sleep, I woke up early because I wanted to see Dumbledore sooner rather than later.

The Headmaster didn't even look grumpy when I came to interrupt his morning. I guess he was already up though because there was a bit of toothpaste on his beard when he opened the door.

He was super understanding when I explained the problem to him, too. "Well, Miss Porter, this is unfortunate, but I don't believe it's difficult to fix."

"Well, I actually looked it up last night." I said, passing Dumbledore a parchment onto which I'd copied the name of the Potion and its brewing instructions.

"Ah," Dumbledore smiled, "Thank you for saving me the trouble."

"I'm not exactly sure where I could get the Motherwort root, as far as I know they only have the leaves in the students' storeroom."

"No need to worry, I will take care of the brewing." said Dumbledore, looking down at the parchment through his half-moon spectacles.

"Oh really?" I said, a bit relieved. I wasn't sure when I'd find the time to do this thing, and honestly I'm not a master with Potions or anything.

"Yes, I'm sure you'll understand I'm generally not supposed to approve of my students secretly slipping each other Potions." explained Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling as he looked up at me again. "Especially when, as Headmaster, I can take on the duty myself, and have a much better chance of getting away with it. Today seems like an awfully good day to invite Mr. Potter for some afternoon tea in my office and see how his Head Duties are going."

When I got down to the Great Hall for breakfast, it was practically empty, and it looked like the food had just appeared onto the tables. A lot of it was still hot and steaming.

I didn't have to sit alone for long though. I'd just finished piling food on my plate and pouring myself juice when Lily sat down across from me with a "Good morning. So you're an early riser, too, huh?"

"Actually, not really." I said.

"You weren't even in the dorm when I woke up."

"Yeah, it's just today. I woke and I couldn't get back to sleep so I went for a walk."

Yeah, morning person was something I definitely was _not_. But then again, it was harder to say what I was and wasn't now. For one, I had always thought of myself as very honest and pretty open with people. But now half of my conversations had me feeling like I was just trying to dodge suspicions.

"Hm, just keep in mind what we talked about last night." said Lily. "Just because the sun's come up doesn't mean you'll be safe, if most people are still sleeping."

"Right." I nodded. It was a bit annoying to be talked to like I didn't know what I was doing, but I guess in the girls' eyes I _was_ the clueless newcomer. Lily was just trying to be helpful.

"Hey, you know I talked to James Potter yesterday.." I casually changed the topic. This was kind of something I wanted to talk about with Lily anyway. I remembered that the last time she went on a rant about why she doesn't like James, she got a bit angry. But I thought maybe if I asked her sincerely, with no one else around, she might really explain it to me. "He didn't seem all too bad. I mean, you got the arrogant bit right-"

"Yeah," snorted Lily, "I'm still surprised his head is able to fit in the castle."

I smiled, but said "Well, it just kinda seems he still has a good side. I mean he's got his heart in the right place. Don't you think?"

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" Lily furrowed her forehead, looking at me strangely. "Of course he's not downright evil or anything. I've never said that. He's just an inconsiderate git. As far as I can tell the only places his heart is in are Quidditch and pranks."

"What about you? He really cares about you, you know."

Lily scoffed. "Yeah, I guess angering me at every possible opportunity is also very important to him."

"It's not like he's trying to make you angry." Did she really think that? "It seems like he's just trying to get you to go on a date with him, and unfortunately, angering seems to be the byproduct of that."

"Look, you haven't known him as long as I have. Potter's self-centered and immature. He doesn't care about how I feel. If he did, he wouldn't make inappropriate comments or laugh at me or ask me out non-stop when I've made it more than clear how I feel about all that. He never really listens, just does what he wants to do. So if you're under the impression that he _really __cares __about __me_, you should reconsider. Someone who actually cares doesn't act like that."

"Hm." I absentmindedly poked at a piece of egg on my plate. I guess that did sound pretty bad. I hadn't actually gotten a chance to witness that many of my grandparents' interactions yet. "But why do you think he keeps asking you out then?"

"Like I said," she scowled a little, "he seems to get off on seeing me frustrated. It is surprising he's not bored of it yet."

Our conversation ended there because Mary came down to breakfast and Lily had to help her with a couple last minute Transfiguration questions. But I kept thinking about what she'd said. Well, if anything, I definitely had some new tips for James on how to improve their relationship. And if all goes well with his afternoon tea with Dumbledore, I wouldn't have to wait to talk to him for long.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N****:** Yay, this was a fun chapter! I liked writing the Lily part, but there's so much I couldn't find a way to fit in with the flow of things. Maybe Lily Luna and Lily are just going to have some more serious conversations one of these days.

Btw guys, if you read can you please review? I don't like asking that much because I figure it's pretty obvious I want to hear from you, as the author of this here thingie. It's just that lately I've been getting two reviews per chapter max, and for last one, no one said anything at all :( So, you know, tell me what you think!


	12. A Serenade

**A****/****N****: **I suppose before anyone reads this chapter, they should know what gout is. According to Wikipedia, it's "a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint." I'm not sure how well-known it is- I don't even know where I'd heard of it- so I wanted to save anyone the trouble of looking it up.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 12: ****A ****Serenade**

The first class of the day started with a lecture on avian to mammalian transfiguration.

I was sitting next to Dorcas, who was taking a few notes, but mostly doodling flowers on the borders of her parchment. I just listened because I didn't generally take notes on theory, but I kept getting a bit distracted by whispering coming from behind.

"Seriously Prongs, take out the part about gout." said Remus' voice.

"But I can't think of anything better to put in there that rhymes with doubt! And it's supposed to be a compliment."

"How is it a compliment to point out someone doesn't have gout?" Sirius sounded skeptical.

"Because it's a good thing not to have it!"

"Are you sure she doesn't anyway? It's not exactly always visible."

"Good point, Wormtail. What if she actually has it and you're going to sound like an idiot?"

"He's going to sound like an idiot either way." sighed Remus.

"Hey!" exclaimed James indignantly. "I'm just trying to do something nice for her."

"Do you actually think she'll like it?" asked Peter.

"Well..I know she's never appreciated my poetry much in the past, but it can't hurt trying, right?"

James didn't get an answer.

My brows were furrowed because that was a strange conversation to overhear. It sounded like James had wrote a poem, probably about Lily..and gout? I suddenly hoped I would get a chance to review this, erm, piece of literature before it made its way into Lily's hands.

I didn't want to talk to James before his planned visit to Dumbledore's office that afternoon though, just in case it'd set off the headache again, so I hoped that it wouldn't be too late to do it after lunch.

Soon enough, McGonagall started passing out owls to all the students, which we were supposed to start turning into raccoons.

Halfway into the lesson, my owl-raccoon was definitely more fury than feathery, and I was just working on giving it a ringed tail, when something whooshed right over my head. The creature, still winged but with a perfectly raccoon head, swept around the classroom before landing to perch on the chalkboard in front of the class.

"Whose animal is this?" McGonagall asked sternly.

But before anyone could reply, the raccoon-owl cleared its throat and said in a high pitched, but clearly understandable voice, "This is going out to a certain Ms. Lily Evans."

And then it started singing.

"Oh, maiden fair with auburn hair,

I serenade to thee!

For there's a thing I must suggest,

to which you should agree.

Thou art a fine lass,

-There's no doubt-

With brilliant wit,

And free from gout.

Yet something in your judgement's gone astray.

I am confused,

For you've refused,

James Potter to this day!"

Most of the class was laughing, and honestly I couldn't keep a straight face myself, but when I looked over to Lily I saw that her mouth was tightly shut and her eyes looked like they were going to shoot laser beams fry the poor owl-raccoon in place.

And the creature was still singing, despite of McGonagall's attempts to silence it with a charm.

"Such a mistake,

So few do make,

It makes no sense at all!

What can he do?

How to get through,

And thou fair heart enthrall?

The lad's a catch,

That few could match!

He's got amazing hair!

He's smart, attractive, charming, too.

Others just don't compare!

So reconsider, darling lass,

To date this strapping lad,

For a fine pair you'll two make,

It'll make the both you glad!"

I was still laughing along with most of the students when James leaned over toward Lily's desk, which was next to mine. "So, Evans. Whaddo you say?"

Lily didn't even turn around to look at him. "Sod off, Potter."

Then McGonagall's voice cut through the laughter in the room, silencing it. "That is _enough_. Mr. Potter, detention for causing the disruption. See me after class. Everyone can get back to their work now."

James, however, was still leaning over to talk to Lily, now with a fallen face. "Hey, I hope you're not saying that because of the gout thing. I just assumed you didn't have it- sort of needed a rhyme, you know- but it's not a big deal if you do!"

Lily made a big exhale through her nose, and I half expected that fire would come out of there.

James continued, "I know it must be very unpleasant, and I'm really sorry about that, but I'll still accept you despite of it!"

Lily turned around in her seat very slowly, her expression kept forcibly calm, though there was clearly all the rage of a wild ax murderer bubbling just beneath the surface. Really, I wouldn't have been surprised to see her whip out that ax and embed it in James' head.

"I don't have gout, Potter." she said, her voice much like her expression. "It's just that having a mutant creature sing to the whole class about how 'amazing' your hair is, hasn't convinced me to finally go out with you. If you could imagine that."

James seemed to take this explanation rather well. "Really? You really think my hair's amazing? Do you want to touch it?" He lowered his head, as though to give Lily a better angle to run her hand through his dark, messy locks.

That's when I believe Lily's eye started to twitch. She replied, speaking slowly "No. I think your hair's just a ridiculous, idiotic mop that sits on your ridiculous, idiotic head, and I really couldn't care less for it, or any other part of your body."

James looked up again, a silly, confused look on his face. "What?! Not even my _abs_? I've got nice abs, you know. I play Quidditch like every day, so-"

Before James could continue, Lily stood up abruptly. She turned to me - which, I admit, scared me for a second- and sharply said, "If McGonagall asks, I'm in the loo."

Then she stalked off, leaving her own raccoon-owl to hoot in confusion and then scurry off.

I turned back around in my seat, before I could make eye-contact with James, who looked really disappointed. Honestly I'd have loved to complement him on his poem; I've seen my share of bad love poems in my life, but that one was really something special. But I knew that at the moment he was, of course, thinking of Lily, and if he started thinking of me at the same time, well, that wouldn't be good.

I understood why the whole thing made Lily so mad of course. The song wasn't even really about her, most of it. It was just about James and how she should go out with him. I could see where she got the impression that he was self-centered.

But still, it was rather hilarious. And I don't know. I thought it was kind of sweet how hard he was trying, in his own way. Of course Lily would never think of it that way, unless he tried an entirely different approach.

_Yes, if James Potter is to ever get Lily Evans to go out with him_, I thought, _some changes must be made._

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**: So I know this chapter is a little short, but there's lot of Lily/James in it, yeah? What's a Lily/James fic if it doesn't have a bit of angry Lily and a dash of clueless James? Lol. Not that this is _exactly_ a L/J fic, but still. I loved writing this chapter, and I'm excited to finally getting the ball rolling with their relationship. I have fun plans, I do, BWAHAHAHAHA!

And I know maybe Lily was overreacting a little bit, lol, but this is sort of the routine for James and her, so I don't think it's all that weird. Habit, you know. It doesn't take much to get her mad at James. And anyway, take note that this is told from Lily Luna's perspective, so who knows, maybe she likes to exaggerate a little? (Honestly though, I love writing angry Lily, lololol).

_By __the __way_, what do you all think of James' poetry skills? Tehehehhehe. I'd love to hear it if anyone has anything to add to the song.


	13. Lunch With the Girls

**Chapter**** 13: ****Lunch ****With ****the ****Girls**

"He's absolutely obnoxious. You see what I meant now, right Luna?" Lily was saying to me over a plate of chicken and mashed potatoes. It was lunch time in the Great Hall. "He does things like that- these stupid, embarrassing gestures that are really just demonstrations of his gargantuan ego- and then he expects me to swoon over it! He's either delusional, or just enjoys ruining my day for a laugh."

"It's the former." put in Mary, who was sitting next to me. "Don't you know Lils? Being delusional is just a simple consequence of being in love."

Lily gave her a very bad look. "Potter's not in love."

"How do you know, though?" I asked. "I mean, it's not like you can read his mind or anything."

"I don't need to read his mind." Lily said simply. "Potter's the kind of person who wears his heart on his sleeve. It's pretty easy to tell what he's thinking; he doesn't exactly hide it."

"Hm." I said, because I saw no point in continuing the conversation. Obviously there were a lot of sides to James that Lily had simply never seen. She had been thinking of him this way for years, and there was no way I would convince her she's wrong with a simple conversation. Especially since as far as she knew, I'd only just met the two of them two days ago. Which technically, I had...

So I just continued eating my mashed potatoes, hoping that when I have a talk with James, it would be less pointless.

Suddenly, Dorcas gasped and the Great Hall noise volume lowered considerably. Most of the students were looking up.

I, too, turned to see why the ceiling suddenly interested everybody. It turned out to be a single owl, which flew down to land beside a young boy at the Ravenclaw table.

The moment the bird landed, a look of strange relief appeared on the faces of those whose eyes had followed its flight, and most turned back to their food. But I continued watching as the boy opened the letter. He stared at it, a look of despair appearing on his pale face.

"Poor him." said Lily with heavy pity. She also must have noticed my look of worried confusion because she then explained, "He got a letter with the Black Seal. It's from the Ministry."

"That's how they tell you someone in your family's dead." Emma stated.

My eyes wide, I turned to look at the boy again. A girl who'd been sitting next to him was now escorting him out of the Great Hall, her arm around him and the letter clutched in her other hand.

"..They just send a letter?" I asked, still a bit shocked "Isn't that a bit..insensitive?"

"It used to be that they had an official come to deliver the news, and they'd call you up to Dumbledore's office." Lily told me, with a dark note in her voice. "But that changed last year. It started happening too often, and now they just send letters."

"They always seal it with black wax, so you know before you even open it." Dorcas' voice was even softer than usual. "And it doesn't generally come with the regular owl post. Some students have gotten it in the middle of class.."

"That's horrible." I said, not really knowing what to think, but feeling a cold sort of apprehension stir inside me.

"You know, Luna," Emma said, looking at me seriously "I can't imagine how your parents could have decided to move back to England now, of all times. There've been people leaving, definitely. You're the only one I know who's come though."

I didn't reply right away, and Dorcas asked, "Aren't they worried about You-Know-Who?"

"I- Well, my dad- he's an Auror, so he never really runs away from danger." Anyone with a decent disregard for the rules knows that the best lies are half-truths. "Actually, the whole reason we moved back here is because the Ministry asked for his help in the fight."

"Wow, I bet he's a pretty good Auror then." said Lily. "You must worry about him a lot though."

"Yeah," I said, thinking back to when I lived in a universe in which he existed. "Not as much as Mum does, though. She tries not to let me and my brothers see, of course, but it always shows when he's gone for a long time."

"You've got brothers?" Mary joined the conversation.

"Uh, yeah." I said. "They're older though, and they've left school a while ago."

"Must be nice to have older brothers." continued Mary. "I bet they're protective of you and stuff..I've just got a younger one. He's a bit of a dork."

"Protective?" I snorted. "Yeah, if you consider hexing my teddybear and slipping me Ton-Tongue Toffees 'protective.'"

"Ton-Tongue-?"

"It's a candy that turns your tongue purple and makes it swell." I explained. "They, er, have it in New York, where my old school is."

"Merlin, sounds like growing up with the Marauders." said Lily sympathetically.

"Well, it was mostly, um, Jim- the older one- who pranked me. Al's too sweet for that." I reminisced. "And to be honest, can't say I never retaliated. There's this one time I charmed his broomstick to fly him into the lake. He wasn't expecting that. It was pretty funny."

"Ah, maybe we finally have someone to defend us against the Marauders' merciless ways." smiled Emma. "They've gotten away with throwing dungbombs through our dorm window and turning our hair horrible colors too many times to count."

"Or retaliation will just incite them even more and then none of us will ever be safe." said Lily pointedly.

We continued chatting lightly for the rest of the lunch period. It was nice, and I was glad that I was slowly getting to know the Gryffindor girls. I still missed my old friends a lot, but at least I seemed to fit in alright here, too.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N****:**

I know, I know, it's super short. Honestly, my chapters aren't really chapters; I'm just posting this fic up scene by scene. And that also makes it really hard to think of good chapter names..but oh well. I like to post stuff up for you guys once I get it written out.

Also, I'm thinking it'd be nice to have a beta. I'd want someone who specifically knows a lot about the Marauders, and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to find that in the beta section. If any of you beta, or can recommend anyone, it'd be great if you let me know!

And BTW, guys, please review! It really makes me happy and gives me a push to keep working on this fic. Last chapter I only got one comment, and I'm pretty sure it's from my friend because she has a characteristic way of rarely saying anything nice (If that's you Tamtams, I really don't remember you ever writing poetry. And James' poem might have been cliche, but I think it still got across a certain James-ness. Oh well, it wasn't that easy for me to write it and it didn't turn out as well as it could have, because it's not in a style that comes easily to me. I really prefer freeverse, not that I'm much of a poet anyway.)


	14. DADA Class

**Chapter**** 14: ****DADA ****Class**

After lunch the Gryffindor 7th years had Defense Against the Dark Arts. Emma, Mary, Dorcas, Lily and I came in and took the seats at the front of the class. I felt very alert and ready to practice defense, partially so because the image of that Ravenclaw boy's face when he got the owl was still clear in my mind.

That, and I've always liked DADA. My old professor had been great, and since third year I'd been a member of the school dueling club he supervised. Plus, defense was something Dad made sure James, Al, and I were good at from a young age. As Head Auror, he knew what was dangerous out there and wanted us to be safe from it.

My new DADA class was taught by a young, pretty woman with very dark skin who came up to me before the lesson began.

"Luna," she said what she thought was my first name. "I'm Professor Imara Nnamani. Professor Dumbledore has told us teachers that there would be a new 7th year student in our classes."

"Yeah, that's me." I said.

Professor Nnamani smiled. "He also assured us that the educational institution you've attended previously is no less academically respected than Hogwarts, and that you would not be far behind in your new classes. However, I would like you to demonstrate that for yourself. How familiar are you with defensive magic?"

"Very. I used to be in a dueling club, actually." I said, and then added, remembering the sort of time I was living in, "I've never had to use it in a real life-threatening situation though."

"I see." said the Professor. "Well I would like you to show what you already know to the class. Would you be willing to duel one of my students today?"

Well this was interesting, and honestly kind of exciting. "Sure!" I said.

Once Nnamani returned to her desk, Emma turned to me and said, "She used to be an Auror, and a good one from what I've heard. No one knows why she quit so young and came to teach here, but we're not complaining because she's way better than all our DADA teachers of the past several years."

Lily, who was sitting next to me, added, "She puts a lot of emphasis on practice. Every other Friday we go out to duel in different parts of the grounds- it's about learning to use our environments. It's really fun!"

"Lily just likes it because she got to knock James Potter into the lake last week, and got 20 house-points for it." put in Emma.

Lily shrugged but didn't deny anything.

Professor Nnamani started the class with a lecture on dark artifacts and how to recognize them.

"A dark artifact is most often an object with a history of violence and chaos. Technically, any ordinary object maybe be cursed with Dark Magic. However, if the curse is long-lasting and powerful, the vessel which holds it is likely marked by a sinister history. That is why antique dark artifacts are often the most dangerous. The older they are and the more destruction they've caused, the more powerful they become."

I listened intently for the half hour that the Professor talked. She was clearly very knowledgeable on the subject, and I actually knew very little about dark artifacts prior to this.

When Nnamani finished the lecture, she said, "For the rest of today's class we'll be observing a duel between our new student, Ms. Luna Porter," she motioned me to come up to the front, "and whomever wishes to volunteer as her opponent."

Quite a few students raised their hands. I suppose I didn't look very threatening, but little did they know what they were getting into, I thought smiling. Not that I planned to use anything as cruel as the Bat-Bogey Hex. But still, I rather liked dueling and kicking arse.

"Sirius Black!" Professor Nnamani called out a name I wasn't really expecting because Sirius was asleep on one of the desks in the back, and most definitely not raising his hand. "Sirius, since you obviously can't pay attention watching and listening, how about you come up here and help Luna demonstrate her skill."

Sirius had woken up from James poking at his side when his name was called. He had a red mark on his face where it had rested on the desk. Still, his voice was smooth when he answered, "If I don't, will I get to spend a detention with you, Imara? I could help you organize a broom closet or two."

Professor Nnamani looked like she was resisting rolling her eyes. "No, Black, it's Mr. Filch with whom you'd have a detention. If you wish to organize some broom closets under his supervision, that can be arranged."

Sirius scrunched up his nose. "Alright. I'll pass on that and fight the Carrot Top."

Carrot Top? I narrowed my eyes at him, almost reconsidering about the Bat-Bogies.

Nnamani ordered everyone to clear a space in the middle of the classroom and to have their shield charms ready to deflect any stray spells.

And soon enough, I was facing Sirius with my wand in my hand. We bowed to each other, as is customary. I could see James smiling from the sidelines, mouthing something at me.

Then the duel began as Sirius shot out a stunner.

I used my quick, Quidditch-trained reflexes to dodge it and send a Disorientation Hex which caused Sirius' next spell to shoot off in the wrong direction.

"Nice one, Luna." Nnamani commented on my hex.

"Yeah, not bad." Sirius added, his voice slightly mocking. I just smiled at him and fired another mass of sparks.

We continued for a while, until my breath got heavier from the dodging and spell casting. The other students cheered whenever either of us made a hit. They seemed to especially like my Exploding Glitter Charm, which is actually something of Emily's creation from our 5th year, and was meant for Gryffindor post-Quidditch-game parties. In its original form it's simple, more-or-less harmless, and perfect for occasional festivities. I, however, like to get creative in my dueling, and I've learned that certain harmless charms can hold great power, if one just manages to amplify them ten-fold.

I, too, couldn't help laughing along with some of the students as several buckets of sparkles rained down upon Sirius Black's head.

"Argh!" Sirius exclaimed and tried to shake it off of his hair. I only laughed harder, appreciating the justice of it all and remembering how unapologetic he had been two nights ago, when I was the one covered in shiny stuff head-to-toe.

Before Sirius had a chance to rub the glitter out of his eyes, I shot another spell at him, pushing him back against the wall. And I then I quickly disarmed him.

"Oof." said James, as though he was embarrassed for his friend, though he was still smiling.

"Yeah Black, guess I'm not bad at all." I said, slowly walking toward him, relishing my victory. I mean, I know I was a little harsh with the humiliating, sparkly defeat, but I wouldn't have had to be so mean if he hadn't been so damn cocky. "Looks like I'm better than you, anyway."

I was pretty sure that I'd won and the duel was over since Sirius was wandless and blinded by glitter, but all of a sudden-

"UNEXPECTED DANGER!" Professor Nnamani shouted, and the next thing I knew I was knocked over by a flying desk.

"What the-?" I said, finding myself on the floor, my wand a few feet away.

"Remember! Surprises happen in a fight." the Professor was saying to the class. "Don't expect fighting to be straightforward in the real world. Thinking linearly may be the biggest mistake you make." Then in a rather quieter voice she added, "Plus, there are still fifteen minutes left of class and I don't want to go back to lecturing."

Grabbing my wand and getting up off the floor, I realized that Sirius too, had his wand back and was pointing it at me.

"_Rictusempra__!_"

I almost fell over again, this time because I was laughing against my will from the Tickling Charm that hit me. But I still managed to gasp out a spell which sent a chair hurling straight into Sirius. Apparently furniture-throwing was allowed, and I was going to take full advantage of that.

Then, bad luck for him, some of the glitter must have made it into Sirius' nose and he started sneezing uncontrollably.

So next I sent a desk, two more chairs, another desk, and then a rubbish bin flying as well. The last one was actually unnecessary for the fight, but I wanted to put a sort of cherry on top of the mountain of desks and chairs which had Sirius Black trapped under it.

Once it looked like Sirius was finished and wouldn't be casting any more spells, I stood straight up to breathe and wipe the sweat off of my forehead. But I still kept a suspicious eye on Nnamani, in case she'd try anything again.

However, it seemed she was satisfied that that was that, and only congratulated me, smiling wide. "Wow! Excellent work, Luna. It seems that your old school prepared you well."

I shrugged, grinning, and glanced over at James. He was holding out his palm to Remus, who was handing over a few bronze coins and a chocolate frog.

After we dug Sirius out from under the furniture and put everything back in its right place, the students began exiting the classroom.

"That was brilliant." Emma was saying as we made our way out. "The glitter- oh Merlin! Black covered in glitter- genius!"

"Yeah." I said, not even denying it. "Especially since he still hasn't managed to get it off! It likes to be elusive when it comes to the Vanishing Spell."

"You know, it felt good to see Black lose." Lily was in a good mood as well. "He's so bloody arrogant. You have no idea how satisfying that was to see."

"Trust me, I found it satisfying too." I told her. "I may not have known him long, but it doesn't always take a long time to figure out somebody's a bit of a prick."

We walked out the door, but before the girls and I made it more than a few steps in the hall, a tall Slytherin boy from our class suddenly blocked our way.

"Well, that was quite a performance." He said, looking down at me, completely ignoring Dorcas, Mary, Lily and Emma. "Impressive, I would say."

"Er.." I was at a loss for words, confused as to why he was eyeing me down like this.

"Talent like that," he said, pausing, "is valuable to have these days."

And then he stalked off as though he hadn't just been talking to us.

"What the bloody hell was that, Avery?" Mary yelled after him, but he kept walking. "Creep." she muttered under her breath.

"Well that was weird." I said, still unsure of what to think.

Dorcas looked a little worried. "That was Hammond Avery. He's not someone you want to trust, Luna. He's dangerous, and I really hope he didn't mean anything by what he just said."

"Hm." I said. "He was probably just trying to be intimidating. What else would he want from me?"

The girls shrugged, and we started talking of other things as we walked down the hallway.

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><p>AN: Yay! I had so much fun finishing this chapter. I really wish I had time to write more often! But I've been busy lately with a summer internship which has me working 40 hours a week, plus I'm doing art for my boyfriend's videogame. So that's why it took so long to update despite all the awesome comments you guys left.. :( Thanks so much though! You guys got me pretty excited about this fic!

:) Let me know what you think. (And btw, I'm still looking for a beta!)


	15. A Talk With James

**A****/****N****:** Eh, who needs to do math homework when there's fanfiction to be written? Here's the next chapter for you guys. Lol.

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><p><strong>Chapter<strong>** 15: A ****Talk ****With ****James**

My last class that afternoon was Muggle Studies. None of the other Gryffindor girls were taking it so I came in and sat down rather disappointed to be alone. Looking around, I didn't really know anyone.

I noticed the classroom shelves were lined with books and bulky machines which were pretty different from what I remembered seeing in my old Muggle Studies class. There were a bunch of boxy devices in the corner which I think were some sort of ancient versions of the television I'd learned about and got to see in action a few times at my Muggle relatives' house. I could tell that Muggle technology had seriously progressed by the time I first took the class in my third year.

Also, I recognized a gramophone, which reminded me of Emily a lot because she had actually had one set up in our dorm. It was one of my favorite Muggle inventions because the older models were powered by a hand crank, not a power cord, so we were able to make it work inside Hogwarts. Over the summers she and I would sometimes go scavenging for music records in the old Muggle shops of London. Emily's favorites were these two guys Simon and Garfunkel, while I personally liked the Beatles because they had a lot of fun songs.

I sighed, a little sad. I was really going to miss the mini dance parties we'd had up in our dorm, just us and our dorm mates, listening to Muggle music.

The lesson started and the professor began talking about the developments in Muggle medicine over the past century. I sorely wished I had someone to play hangman with or _something_. What was the point of even being in this class now that Hugo and Emily weren't there?

But then, five minutes into the lecture, the classroom door opened and James sauntered in.

Professor Finkle didn't even stop talking, though he did give James a very bad look, in return to which James mouthed, "_Sorry_," though he didn't really look sorry.

When he saw me he smiled and walked over to my side of the room. All the desks beside me were taken, but James tapped one boy on the shoulder and motioned for him to move with his thumb. Surprisingly, the boy acquiesced. I wondered if it was because of James' Head Boy badge, or the possible threat of being hexed after class.

"Glad to see you're in here too!" James said to me when he sat down. "Thought I might have to weather it through on my own today."

"You don't usually?" I asked.

"Nah. Padfoot- Sirius- is generally here too." he clarified for my benefit. "But he has a date or something this afternoon..though I wouldn't be surprised if he skived off _that_ to go take a shower. Don't think his date would've appreciated the sparkling."

I chuckled. "Good. He's been a bit of an arse, so if you ask me, he deserves to sparkle."

James nodded, smiling. "Don't take it personally. He's more or less that way with everyone."

"Yeah?" I would've said more but at that moment the professor looked over at us with a look very similar to the one he had given James when he walked in. I lowered my voice. "Um..maybe we should talk later?"

"Why? Oh, Finkle?" James asked airily. "Don't worry about him. He's the passive aggressive type. It's rare he gets _really_ pissed- bit of a challenge really." And indeed, Finkle just kept going on about something called penicillin. James continued, "When he's annoyed he just gets that constipated look on his face and sucks in all that anger. When he does lose it though, well, it's quite amusing."

I raised my eyebrows, smiling nonetheless. I could see that Lily's indignation of James being made Head was definitely warranted.

Now that I had James to talk to alone, I was eager to mention his whole situation with Lily. I felt like a major part of their problem was due to miscommunication, and I was in a great position to help solve that. Maybe then they could get together sooner rather than later- since they were supposed to, anyways- and they'd have more time together before.. well, before that upcoming night of October 31st, 1981.

I wouldn't really be messing up the future if I merely nudged them along, would I? Plus, now that I knew that this was a _parallel_ _universe,_ not just the past of my own world, wouldn't that mean things didn't necessarily have to be the same? What if in this universe, Lily and James never get together, unless I help them out? What if in this universe, the war was meant to end for the worse...? What if I could actually _stop_ that from happening?

So that's why I was glad to hear it when Finkle announced that we'll be working with partners, using something called a microscope to look at bacteria cultures.

While the microscopes were being passed out, James leaned closer to my desk, his expression different from the nonchalant look of amusement that he'd been wearing before. "So, uh..about this morning. What did Lily say to you after class? She didn't seem to like my song very much."

Glad that he was the one to bring up the topic, I replied, "No, not really."

James frowned and narrowed his eyes, "She..doesn't have gout, does she?".

I laughed. "Um, no I don't think it's about gout." I said to James. "It was more that your song, well..it wasn't very romantic."

"What?" James frowned. "Why not? I thought girls loved having songs written about them."

"Well that depends." I replied. "The contents of the song kind of matter a lot. And your contents weren't exactly flattering. It was more about how she should go out with you than about your feelings for her, or what kind of person she is, you know?"

"Hm." James looked thoughtful. "So that's what she doesn't like, then? Guess I'll have to write the next one a bit differently.. Focus on what kind of person she is, you say?"

"Actually that's not what you need right now either." I clarified quickly before James could go and make another disaster of a musical creation. "I don't think you should write songs for her at all, at least for just a little while. If you really want her to come around, you're going to need to change your strategy altogether."

James was listening intently. "Are you saying you might know how to get Lily to go out with me?"

"Maybe," I shrugged. "I know how _not_ to get her to go out with you, anyway." And that seems to be a step ahead of you, I thought.

"Alright, I'm listening." said James. A microscope floated up and settled itself upon his desk, but he ignored it.

"If you want my help, first I'm going to need to know the situation. Can you tell me how it all started in the first place?" I asked, partially because the information might be useful, but also because I was seriously curious.

"Alright." James rubbed his neck and started talking. "First time I asked her out was in fourth year. Although back then, well, I guess I wasn't all that sincere." His voice was sheepish. "It might have started off as a bit of a game..But it's not like that now!" He lowered his gaze. "It's nothing like that."

"I know." I nodded. It was pretty obvious to me that he actually liked her. It's just too bad it wasn't that clear to Lily.

"Moony had made a comment that Lily would be the last girl in the school to go out with me and I kind of took that as a challenge. So I unleashed the full powers of my Potter charm- but, well, you know the results.

"I didn't give up though. I started paying more attention to her, doing my research. It's not that I'd never noticed her before, I had. But not like this.. I hadn't noticed how she gets this look in her eye anytime someone doubts her, especially if it has anything to do with her being Muggleborn, and because of it she ends up outperforming everyone in the class.

"I hadn't noticed how she always stands up for people, if she thinks they're being treated unfairly, even if it's someone who'd never do a nice thing for her in return. She just has this stupid, righteous streak, and I honestly think she's amazing for it. Even if it is annoying at times.

"I hadn't noticed how she chews on her quill and wrinkles her nose whenever she's concentrating on an assignment or taking an exam.

"I hadn't noticed that while she usually appears proper and studious, she has these moments when she just lets go and laughs louder than anyone, or runs out into soaking rain, or sings to herself, or dances like no one's looking, and I feel like it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

"I hadn't noticed how she's ridiculously kind and patient to anyone who needs it, and barely ever gets mad; I'm just the exception to that..I guess I really get under her skin. To be honest I've never seen anyone else make her yell. She's gotten angry with other people of course, but it's usually in this cold, silent way- you should've seen how she acted towards Snape after they stopped being friends in fifth year.

"And I hadn't noticed that when I do get her all flustered and red in the face, she comes up with these brilliant insults and shoots these really intense glares, and I can't help but think she's adorable. I mean, it was a little scary at first but now that I'm used to it, it's adorable.

"And..yeah. I really like her, you know? If only she would give me the time of day, but she just tends to ignore me if I'm not doing something she doesn't approve of." There was a sad note in his voice at the end of his explanation.

So that's why he acted like such a git around her, I thought, feeling sorry for James. It was the only way Lily paid him any attention. Not that James wasn't naturally a bit of a git, but he was just particularly bad when it came to Lily. It seemed like that's the side of him she encountered the most.

I nodded a little, smiling at him. "You know James, you're actually really sweet. If only you can come off that way more often when you're around Lily."

"I've tried to! I've tried a lot of things. I've even tried leaving her alone for a little bit, giving her what she wants...back in sixth year. Moony thought it would help." he explained sadly. "She didn't say a word to me that whole month.. I'm not going back to that. Even though it's rather miserable to know she hates me now, it's nothing like it was feeling her indifference."

"I can imagine." I said, quietly. I'd never liked anyone as much as James obviously liked Lily, but even I knew that, sometimes, being noticed in a bad way felt better than not being noticed at all.

"So what should I do?" James asked, looking at me rather hopefully.

"Well.." I thought of how Lily didn't even know he actually liked her. "You need to be more honest with her."

"But I am honest with her!" said James indignantly.

"I mean in a different way- I mean you need to be more genuine, you know?" I continued. "Don't try to act all cool or whatever. If you want someone to like you, you have to let yourself be vulnerable sometimes."

A thoughtful look crossed James' face. "What do you mean exactly?"

"I think Lily sometimes acts mean towards you because she doesn't realize how it can actually hurt you. You hide your emotions from her too well, so well that she doesn't think you actually have any." I said. "So I think you should try to, I dunno, stop masking yourself or something. Don't pretend you're invincible, and maybe Lily will realize you're actually human."

James was staring off past me now, playing with a loose string on the cuff of his robes. "I try not to let the things she says get to me. It's not always hard, but sometimes…" He paused, then looked at my face again. "I just don't let that stuff discourage me. Is that really so bad?"

"No, of course." I replied quickly. "You shouldn't let it discourage you. Just don't pretend like you don't care."

James nodded slowly. "Yeah, alright..too bad that's probably easier said than done."

"Of course it'll be hard to give up your habits, but there are certain things you can do." I tried to think of more advice to give him. "You should try it when you're alone with her. It'll be easier to resist showing off that way and to let her know you're serious."

"Alright." James said. "We have rounds together sometimes. That shouldn't be that hard."

I continued, "And if you're going to try this, you should probably do it gradually. To be honest, I think it's best if you ask to start with a clean slate, and try talking to her more openly about other stuff at first. Like, I dunno, ask her how her day went, how her family's doing, all that stuff. Be friendly. And eventually, once she no longer thinks you're a prick, you can let her know how you feel about her in all honesty. No need for any grand gestures or anything- I think she's had enough of that for a while. Just talk to her, person to person, and honestly I think that'll be enough to get her to like you."

James listened intently, his eyebrows furrowed, frowning a little. "You really think so?"

"Is the guy with a head the size of this castle really doubting himself?" I asked, joking warmly.

James smiled and shrugged, then said. "I guess I'll see her tonight for patrols. I can try it out then."

"Let me know how it goes." I said, before reaching over to look at the microscope because in our conversation James had forgotten about it altogether.

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><p><strong>A<strong>**/****N**: Tehhehe, here you go guys, finally a chapter practically dedicated to Lily and James..even though Lily wasn't there in person. But still, I really liked writing it.

Make sure to tell me what you think! I'm super cereal guys. Leave a comment. Do iiiiit.

And by the way, the beta spot is still open! PM me if you might be interested!


	16. The Library

**Chapter 16**: **The Library**

The door creaked just a little when I pushed it open, but that didn't worry me since the Map showed that no one except me was within hearing radius of the library.

I passed by bright pools of moonlight on the floor as I made my way straight for the restricted section, mentally holding my fingers crossed that I would find what I had come for.

Sneaking out wasn't as easy as it used to be, since now I had to hide it from my dorm mates, not just the prefects and the teachers. Tonight however, Lily was gone doing rounds (I could see her and James' dots moving along the second floor corridor. I hoped that after our conversation earlier that day, James was taking my advice and making some progress.), Mary and Emma didn't even notice me leave because they were finishing up some Potions project for which they were partnered, and Dorcas was busy painting something at her desk. Only Lily's cat, Socks, had stared at me with narrow eyes as I slunk out of the dormitory without saying a word.

The restricted section was roped off, but that didn't provide much of an obstacle, and skipping over the massive Dark Arts section, I found myself looking at the Ancient Runes books, fifth shelf up, a couple books from the right.

And there is _was_! Exactly where I had found it before! I couldn't believe my luck as I reached up to take the book which had brought me to the parallel universe past and created this whole mess in the first place.

I saw by the light coming in from the window that the large, engraved rune for "portals" was there on its cover, but I barely glanced at it before I flipped it open to look for the Key.

But the reverse side of the cover was smooth. Running my hand over it I felt no stone blocks trapped under the leather, no cuts or incisions made in order to have taken one out...

_Nonetheless, this is progress_, I comforted myself. There must be something somewhere in the book that explains how all this travel between dimensions stuff works.

Unfortunately books that old almost never have a table of contents, so I flipped to a random page in the middle, just to make sure the runes looked like something I could read. And indeed, I recognized quite a few symbols here and there, though I still probably needed a rune dictionary.

But as I leaned in closer to see if I could make out any sentences, I noticed something peculiar. One of the words seemed to have..sparkled? No, it was more like a glisten.. but I wasn't sure if I imagined it or not, so I tilted it into the light. And sure enough, it happened again. A faint glow which appeared in one moment, and then faded away in the next. I stared at the rune- which simply translated to the number 3- and about ten seconds later the glowing happened again.

Excited, I flipped to another page, and another and another, looking for more glowing signs. And I found them; only a couple more, and they would've been easy to miss if I hadn't been looking for them, but they were there. The book must have had some sort of coded message!

I was eager to start translating, so I pressed the book against my chest, quickly checked the Map, and made my way out of the library and back to Gryffindor Tower.

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><p><strong>AN:** A short chapter, but I think this scene kinda belongs all on its own. Btw, pay no attention to my chapter names..they're very hard to come up with because my chapters are rarely long enough to have meaningful names. I just put them there to make it easier to find a specific one if I ever need to go back and look. I might just start naming them all after the setting and characters present.

Anyway! Writing this chapter got me pretty excited about the time travel plot! I have tons of ideas, but it's not all perfectly flushed out yet. I'm curious, what do you guys expect or think about it in general? :)


	17. A Gift

**Chapter 17: A Gift**

"How were your rounds last night?" I asked Lily, who was at the vanity mirror next to my bed, pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

It was morning time in the girls' dormitory, and all of us were getting ready for breakfast. I was putting on my knee-highs, feeling a bit sluggish because I'd stayed up the previous night trying to decipher the runes. Still, the question about rounds slipped out of my mouth as soon as I remembered to wonder how things went between Lily and James on their patrol.

"Mm, fine." she replied, a bit muffled because she held a bobby pin in her mouth. "Found some Ravenclaws snogging in a broomcloset - nothing unusual."

I nodded. I guess it was expected that progress might be slow. But then Lily continued.

"Potter seemed a bit off though." She said, turning from the mirror to face me. "He was very inquisitive, asking me about my family and my day. He was almost worse than usual, not to mention it was very suspicious."

"Maybe he just wanted to try being friendly?" I attempted to prod Lily in the right direction, rather put out that she actually said he was worse.

"Potter? Friendly?" She scoffed. "No, he's definitely up to something. Whatever it is, he _better_ not involve my family in it."

"I don't think you should worry, Lils." said Emma, who was standing and waiting for everyone at the door. "James might be brazen, but he's not a downright scumbag. He wouldn't do anything too inappropriate."

"I guess," shrugged Lily. "But I don't have much confidence in Potter's ability to judge what's appropriate and what's not."

_Merlin, she's a stubborn one_, I thought. This obviously wasn't working, so I decided to try a different approach. Standing up and grabbing my bag, I said, "Well, to be honest I had a talk with him yesterday, and I let him know what you told me earlier- about all that stuff he does that bothers you. And he actually listened and-"

"Really?" Lily interrupted, her voice incredulous. "Because I've been telling him what bothers me for _over three years_ now, and he's never tried to take it into account before."

"Look," I said, sighing, "I'm not saying he hasn't been acting like an idiot- he has. But a lot of that was in the past, and I think if you gave him a chance to show you the person he is now-"

"He's got plenty of chances! But for some reason everytime I see his stupid face, the same stupid words come out of it!" Lily replied, a tinge of anger in her voice.

"Well how do you expect him to act if you're being so hostile towards him?" I pointed out, growing a bit frustrated myself.

"I expect him to sod off! Or that's what I would expect of any normal person after I make it more than clear I want nothing to do with him."

"Well I told him to stop asking you out, but you two are Heads together. You can't just cut off all contact."

"Stop asking me out? You think you could make Potter do that?" Lily sounded extremely skeptical.

"Did he bother you about that last night?" I asked, ready to prove my point.

"Yes." said Lily. "As a matter of fact he did."

My shoulders dropped, "Really. But I definitely mentioned that was a bad idea.."

Lily seemed to soften. She said, looking at me, "Luna, why are you playing Potter's advocate anyway? You've known him for all of three days."

"I just..feel like there's this great misunderstanding between you two." I replied. "I thought maybe if I helped clear things up a bit.."

"That what? I'd prance off into the sunset with him?" asked Lily, her tone sarcastic, but no longer angry. "Look, Potter and me - we're never going to happen."

She said it with so little doubt, that I felt a sudden fear that she might be right. Not in my universe, of course- I was proof of that- but here, in this foreign time stream. What if I only messed things up by trying to help? What if I only succeeded in pushing them further apart? Maybe I was making a huge mistake by being so meddlesome...

Still feeling doubtful, I followed Emma, Dorcas, and Lily out of the dorm room to go down to breakfast (Mary was still doing her hair, and apparently that was going to take a while).

We stopped right outside the door though, because right next to it was a large stuffed animal- a bear- with a white lily in its paw.

"Merlin! Again!" exclaimed Lily, rolling her eyes.

Dorcas picked up the bear, which was easily half her size. There was a small card attached to the flower, and Emma reached out to read it.

"'To My Amazing Lily, From James.'"

Lily made a face. "Ugh. Since when does he call me by my first name? And I'm not 'his' in any sense of the word!"

Dorcas, who was hugging the giant bear said, "I know you don't like him, Lily, but this is so big and soft!"

Emma smiled, "I think Dorcas is asking if we could actually keep this one, and not burn it in a ceremonial I Hate Potter Fire."

"What! You can't burn it!" I exclaimed. Sure, I was annoyed James was so blatantly disregarding my advice, but I didn't want to take it out on the teddy bear!

Lily shot Emma a look. "I wasn't going to burn it. I usually toss out the stuff Potter gives me in the rubbish bin."

"Well he won't fit in a rubbish bin." I said. I kinda wanted to keep the bear, too. "He would fit on our windowsill though."

"Fine." Lily shrugged. "But we're tossing the flower."

No one bothered to argue with that, although I did think it was a bit of a shame because it was a very nice flower, even if it was a bit cliche of James to give it to her - I know I've gotten lilies before from one of my admirers back in 5th year. It was obviously because of the name and I thought that was a bit boring because my favorite flowers were actually daffodils.

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><p><strong>AN**: Things are moving along, moving along :) I actually like this chapter because it sets up some stuff that's going to be interesting in the future..

Let me know what you think! (And btw, I'm still looking for a beta.)


	18. Broom Cupboard

**A/N: **Omg, thanks for the reviews guys! :) :) :) I'm really gonna try to update regularly for you all! That probably means like..at least every two weeks? I know when I was writing this before I only posted once a month or less, but you've all got me super excited! And now that I've got stuff more or less planned out, hopefully it will come faster!

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><p><strong>Chapter 18: Broom Cupboard<strong>

Thursday mornings I had Charms class and then a free period right before lunch. Thankfully this time I was able to demonstrate a perfectly working Reviving Charm and Flitwick didn't bring up the topic of me getting a tutor again.

After class the girls were going to catch up on some homework in the library, but I declined to go with them because the book I found the previous night, and the possibility of going home soon, was still on my mind. I decided to go through it from beginning to end, writing down the glowing runes in case that would tell me anything. So far I found about ten, most of which I had no idea how to translate. That would have to come later.

It appeared that the runes only glowed in the dark, though, and only when I looked at the page at a very specific angle. That's why I found myself spending my free period in the broom cupboard on the fifth floor, alone, sitting on an upturned bucket with the book in my lap.

However, the cupboard stayed pitch-black when I opened the book, except for the thin sliver of light coming in from under the door. Confused, I flipped through the pages, intently looking for any sign of a glow. But while I could feel the book in my hands, my eyes saw nothing. I brought my face up close to the page, so close I could smell the old parchment the runes were written on, but I still could not see them.

But then the door to the cupboard opened, and I looked up, squinting slightly at the sudden bright light.

"Reading books in the dark, are we?" It was Sirius and some Hufflepuff girl who was holding onto his sleeve. They both looked highly amused. "You are aware that we have a library?"

I stood up, a little flustered and unsure how to explain myself. I ended up replying rather caustically, "Yes, I'm aware there's a library. Now if you excuse me-" I grabbed onto the door handle to close it again.

"Hey!" Sirius stopped the door with his foot. "I understand that you're new here, so you might not be aware, but this is a broom cupboard, and broom cupboards are for snogging. Now, if you were snogging that book, we apologize for the interruption," he tilted his head in a gentlemanly manner, "but you might want to lock the door next time. However, if you weren't snogging anything, then you should really vacate this cupboard so someone could put it to much better use, and go do, er, whatever you were doing, somewhere else."

"I'm not vacating anything!" I retorted, my hand still on the doorknob. "I was here first!"

Sirius looked at me, his gaze rather patronizing. "Do I need to explain to you the purpose of broom cupboards again?"

"Do I need to tell you to sod off again?" I replied, with matching contempt.

Sirius sighed, and looked over at his companion. "Sorry love, looks like we're gonna have to share."

And the girl didn't even protest as he dragged her into my cupboard, rudely bumping me on the way.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. But my protest was blatantly ignored.

Now, I generally hate admitting defeat, but when the alternative was sticking around to watch two teenagers snogging each others' heads off, in a vicinity that was way too cramped for my liking, well, the choice to get the hell out of there wasn't too hard to make.

"Ew." I said loudly, edging past them and out the door, slamming it closed behind me.

I was going to stalk off, maybe find the girls in the library and complain a little, but then I got a better idea.

Who did Sirius think he was, acting so bloody entitled? If I let him walk all over me once, he would surely do it again. And anyway, someone had to teach him a lesson. Just because he was handsome and popular didn't mean he could push people around without any consequences.

"_Colloportus_." I whispered at the doorknob, which made a quiet clicking sound that I assume Sirius and the Hufflepuff were too distracted to hear.

Then I stuck my wand through the awfully convenient crack under the door, and mustered up all my energy into my next spell, "_Avis!_"

And then I reveled in my victory as the shrieking began, amidst the chirping sounds of a dozen or so trapped birds.

I leaned casually against the wall next to the cupboard, my arms folded, chuckling as I listened to the symphony of chirping and swearing, coming from behind the closed door. I was looking forward to seeing Sirius' face at the end of all this. Really, if he thought I would be easy to mess with, I was glad to prove him very, _very_ wrong.

After a few more moments of "BLOODY HELL!"s, "Oh my Merlin, WHAT IS THIS!?"s, and rattling the doorknob, it seemed like someone managed to collect their wit enough to use_ alohomora_, and Sirius and the girl bust out of there along with a frantic flock of small yellow birds.

The birds zoomed off at their first opportunity for freedom, while the Hufflepuff girl proceeded to straighten her skirt, looking flushed. Sirius, however, stared at me angrily. He didn't look all that threatening though, to be honest. The small yellow feather sticking out of his dark hair made me laugh even more.

"I guess no one told you," he began, putting in a threatening pause, "not to prank a Marauder. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

I shrugged, refusing to be intimidated. Smirking at how that seemed to make Sirius even angrier, I replied nonchalantly, "I'm sure I can handle it."

His eyes narrowed as he approached me slowly. "This," he poked a finger at my chest, "is war."

I nodded, still smirking. "Well if you say so. I just hope you know that in a war, there're casualties on both sides."

"Sirius? Can we go?" The Hufflepuff girl obviously didn't like being ignored. She'd stood looking at the two of us as the threats were exchanged.

Sirius gave me one last angry look, and a mutter of "bloody basket-case," before getting dragged off by the girl. I watched them retreat for a moment before leaving myself.

I guess I wasn't totally sure about what I was getting myself into. After all, I'd only really known Sirius Black for less than a week. But I did know a lot of important things about him. I knew his future, which was actually more than he even knew himself. I knew that he'd risked his life for my family, that he did the right thing when it mattered.

But of course that wouldn't stop me taking him down a peg or two, I decided. If he was going to be such a prick, it was only fair. And maybe this would actually be rather fun. I smiled to myself. After all, what fun is life without some element of the unexpected?

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><p><strong>AN**: Hehehhehe, Lily Luna and Sirius are SO much fun to write together! Finally Lily Luna gets to have fun and show off her true colors. And honestly, this is only the beginning.

Beta spot is still open!

And please review and make my day! :)


	19. Plotting

**Chapter 19: Plotting**

"You did what?" Lily stared at me wide-eyed across the table. I had found her, Emma, and Dorcas sitting in a corner of the library, doing their schoolwork.

"Locked them in there with a bunch of birds."

Emma raised her eyebrows and exchanged a smile with Dorcas, but Lily looked horrified. "What in Merlin's name made you think that was a good idea? You're doomed now. _Doomed_, you understand? The only people who can prank a Marauder and get away with it are the Marauders themselves."

"Well he deserved it, what was I supposed to do? Let him take the cupboard from me just like that?" I replied indignantly.

"Can I ask why were you sitting alone in a broom cupboard in the first place?" Dorcas asked in her gentile, quiet voice.

"Um, I was meditating. I find the darkness relaxing, you know." I replied and quickly return to the previous subject. "Anyway, with guys like Sirius, this is the only way to get to him, by showing him I can out-play him at his own game."

Emma's tone was skeptical, almost pitying, "You really think you could out-prank Sirius Black?

I shrugged. "Well I'm not going to give up before even trying."

"Actually, that's exactly what you should do." Lily was holding her face in her hands. "You have no idea…It's not just Sirius whom you have to worry about, you do realize? Potter and the rest of them are definitely going to be helping him out."

I actually hadn't thought about that. I guess I'd have to be treading carefully around James as well? Honestly I still kind of hoped he wouldn't take sides, since this whole thing was between me and Sirius. But, Sirius was his best friend, and though I was his actual family, he didn't know that. To him I was just some girl who shared his passion for Quidditch and showed a lot of interest in his love life.

So I was at a disadvantage, and not only by numbers. Actually, the first thought I had after leaving the crime scene and going off to find the girls was that I should make a run to Hogsmeade and stock up on Zonko's products, not to mention I'd have liked to buy a few packs of Sugar Quills. But then I remembered I no longer had money to be spending on such luxuries.

So all that was disappointing, to say the least. But I still knew that as long as I had my own brilliant mind, and all of my experience, I was definitely in the game.

"Hm, do any of you happen to have some dungbombs or something? Biting tea-cups? Frog-spawn soap?" I asked as I reached into my bag for some parchment to brainstorm a few ideas.

"No, we don't." said Lily looking at me with disapproval. "You do know the Head Girl is sitting right here, right?"

"Relax Lily." Emma tried to calm her friend. "Is it actually against the rules to give a smug, entitled git a bit of his own medicine? How many times has he pranked _us_?"

_Well, it sounds like I might have an ally_, I though, glad that someone was thinking along the same lines as me. Not that Emma was signing up to be my comrade in arms or anything, but still, I liked her. She seemed like someone who knew what was important, and wouldn't mind a little taste of some delicious, sweet revenge.

Lily, however, still wasn't convinced. "I just don't see why this is the right way to go about it. It's going to be miserable for all parties involved."

"Miserable?" I asked, almost offended. "You've never pranked anyone, have you? Do you know how it feels to see Sirius Black emerge from a dark broom closet amidst a flock of little yellow birds, looking bloody furious? It's not miserable! It's downright hilarious!"

"Yeah, well I'm sure _he_ was miserable." replied Lily half-heartedly, a smile almost escaping onto her lips.

"And anyway," I continued, "This is the only way to get through to guys like him, to show him he can't walk all over me. I mean, what would you do? Give him a detention? Take some points? Like he would care. Trust me, this is the only way to win. This is the only way you can ever teach someone like that to respect you."

Lily stared at me with a strange look on her face for a few moments. She looked like she was thinking really hard. And was that anger in her face? Still looking conflicted, she replied, "Well I don't want his respect if it means sinking down to his level."

"Are we still talking about Sirius?" asked Dorcas.

"Nevermind." Lily said, shrugging. "You do whatever you want. Just make sure none of us end up being collateral damage."

Unfortunately that was going to be more up to Sirius than me, so I didn't answer. Instead I began jotting down a few of the ideas floating around in my head as the rest of the girls went back to their Transfiguration homework.

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><p><strong>AN:** Not very long, but that's because I ended up cutting out a chunk and saving it for later. (I dunno, would it be better if I posted often, but in short chapters, or rarely, with longer chapters?) Lots of fun stuff coming! I'd really like it if you guys would leave comments if you're reading. It keeps me very motivated. Last chapter I only got one :( even though there were a lot of views. I thought you guys would like that one...

But thanks to jennyellen for reading and commenting though! :) And I know we haven't seen too many sides of Sirius yet, or most of the other characters either, but Lily Luna's only known them for less than a week! So rest assured there's more to most of them than what we've seen so far.

Also, if anyone has any prank ideas they want me to consider, let me know! Lily Luna and Sirius already have some planned of course, but there's always room for more.

Beta spot is still open.

Oh, and if you still need a reason to comment, I think I might take some fanart requests for this fanfic! I draw sketches for it all the time, but they're very rough so I don't post them. Or they're just of the characters, standing around. But if any of you guys want to see me illustrate a specific scene, I'll give it a try! (I'd post it on my deviantArt, where I'm known as nutella-frogs. There's a link on my profile if you don't want to google it, under "Miscellaneous Notes").

That's it for now!


	20. Double Potions

**Chapter 20: Double Potions**

After lunch the girls and I had double Potions. I recognized the Professor as Horace Slughorn, a younger version of a man I met a couple times when I was little. But mostly I remembered him from a few of Mom and Dad's stories. He was totally obsessed with my Dad, because he was so famous I guess. We used to get party invitations from him all the time, before he passed away when I was just starting Hogwarts.

But now here he was, sitting at his desk, eating what looked like crystallized pineapple, as the students came in and took their seats in the candle-lit dungeon. I followed Mary, Emma, Lily and Dorcas, but all the desks were meant for two people and I was left standing beside them.

"Oh, sorry Luna," Lily said apologetically. "We're finishing up a two-week partner project right now. You should go ask Slughorn whom you can work with."

"Maybe he'll let you join one of our groups." Dorcas added.

So I came up to the Professor, who put down a stack of essays he'd been reading.

"Oh, yes! Miss Porter. Luna Porter." He exclaimed when he saw me. "I'd forgotten you were going to be joining us."

"Yes, I was wondering whom I should partner with, Professor?" I asked.

"Well, we used to have an odd number of students, so this works out quite nicely." he said. "Follow me."

I could tell whom Slughorn was planning to partner me with before we made it all the way to his desk. He was the only one working alone in the back, already stirring his potion before class even started.

"Severus," Slughorn started as the boy looked up at us, his face framed by a curtain of greasy hair. "I know you prefer working alone, but we have a new student in the classroom, and I think it's fitting to pair her with you. I trust you're more than capable of helping her catch up?"

Slughorn awaited a reply, but neither Snape nor I said anything so the Professor introduced me after a moment of awkward silence. "This is Luna Porter, the transfer student."

"We've met, more or less." Snape said, his black eyes glistening, reflecting the light of the candles.

"Well, then I'll leave the two of you to your potion!" Slughorn said with false cheer before making off back to his desk.

I looked first at Snape, who was already back to his stirring, then to the faces around the classroom turned towards us. Lily was looking at me with a bit of worry, or maybe sympathy. A few desks away, James was wearing a look of sort of amused horror, shaking his head. Sirius, next to him, looked like his birthday had come early.

_Oh, great_, I thought.

After Slughorn announced the start of class and told everyone to keep working on their potions, Snape more or less ignored me, measuring out a spoonful of salamander blood.

I was standing rather awkwardly on the opposite side of the table. "So, erm, what are we making?" Snape didn't answer and I spotted a small jar of silvery, glowing powder on the desk. Recognizing it as moonstone, and knowing what it's most commonly used for, I asked "Some sort of love potion, is it?"

"No." Snape finally replied. "It's an Enmity Elixer."

"A hate potion?"

"One of the strongest." Snape replied, unwrapping a small parcel that had been sitting next to the powdered moonstone. It turned out to be a crocodile heart.

"So, um, what do you want me to do?"

"You can start soaking the baneberries." Snape sneered. Great, I was going to spend the lesson taking orders from the bloke I Bat-Boogeyed a few nights ago...

"_Aguamenti_." I said, filling a nearby bowl with water and dumping a handful of baneberries in. "So..what else? What page of the book is this on?"

"I'll take care of it from here." said Snape contemptuously, not answering my question.

"Um, and what am I supposed to do? Sit here and look pretty?"

"If you can manage that." he sneered again.

"Look, sorry if you're all butt-hurt about the other night," I said, annoyed, "But you attacked me first. Didn't you expect me to retaliate?"

"I don't see how that's relevant." said Snape, for the first time sounding more angry than condescending.

"Well why don't you let me do some actual work then?" I replied, frustrated.

"Because in my experience, anyone who chooses to associate with Potter and joins the _Marauders_' little fanclub " - he said the name as though it tasted like rotten cabbage - " is usually dead from the neck up, and certainly cannot be trusted with brewing a potion as complex as this."

I narrowed my eyes, "I didn't join any _fanclubs_. Just because I'm friends with James doesn't mean I like the rest of them. Honestly, I've barely said two words to Remus, and I can't argue with anyone who calls Black a downright prick." And I didn't even say anything about Pettigrew.

"Speaking of which.." I continued. Looking over at Sirius, I could see that he and James were both working diligently on their potion. It was awfully suspicious. "I'd say there's about a 78% chance that Black's going to sabotage our potion today. So you might want to be watching out for that."

"Why is that?" Snape raised an eyebrow as he chopped up the heart on a cutting board. "Fancy yourself a seer or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know, you're almost as frustrating as he is. And no, it's just that we're sort of in a bit of a conflict, and what better opportunity for him to get me back than right now? His prank war rival, and, er-" I gave Snape a look-over- "the greasy Slytherin bloke he doesn't like, working on the same potion. He could kill two birds with one stone."

"Well then, it appears we're in need of a watchdog. There's that job opening you wanted." replied Snape in that low, slimy voice of his.

I huffed, thinking perhaps I should just give up. There are worse things than sitting around bored out of my mind for a whole period of double Potions..which is technically two periods..which is like three hours.

I was about to moan because it wasn't even fifteen minutes since class started when I realized what was sitting on the table, right in front of me. Merlin, what have I been doing this whole time!?

"Flobberworm Mucus!" I exclaimed excitedly, seeing the label.

"Well at least she can read." Snape muttered under his breath.

"Oh sod off." I said, still smiling. And next to it? Oh yes..I reached out for the jar of dried cockroaches. "Can I borrow this?" I asked Snape.

He looked at me, raised an eyebrow, and said, "No." The git.

"Come on! It's for a good cause! And I'll be discrete." I tried to convince him. "After all, don't you want to hear the sweet sound of Black's disgust once he realizes the whole inside of his bookbag is smothered in mucus?" Snape, unfortunately, still wasn't looking convinced, so I continued, "And, everyone knows that the best defense is a good offense."

Snape gave me one of his looks and began stirring the potion again. I was about to protest- because what else did I have to do for the next several hours- when Snape's hand moved so quickly I almost didn't notice it. The next thing I knew there was another ingredient placed on the desk in front of me, a small, corked phial - "Feline Urine."

Merlin, I almost burst out laughing, but of course that would've attracted Sirius' attention so I held it in, pursing my lips together. And I couldn't help the triumphant grin spreading across my face. This was gold. Did Snape know how perfect this was? Well, no of course he didn't. I was the only one who could know, aside from the other Marauders, about Sirius' canine side.

I uncorked the phial just to make sure the goods were intact. And indeed, they were. After that I cast an unbreakable charm on the glass, and slipped it in my bag for safe-keeping.

I spent the next part of class levitating globs of Flobberworm Mucus, with a couple dozen dried cockroaches mixed in, into Sirius' bag. The best part is that I kept my wand hidden under the desk, and no one noticed a thing. Well, there was a moment when Slughorn walked by, checking on our Potions, but he didn't seem to notice the bowl of mucus because all he said was, "Excellent work as ever, Severus." and kept walking. I mean, it did surprise me a little and made me drop some of the cockroach-mucus mixture on a Ravenclaw girl's shoe, but she didn't seem to notice, so no harm done.

And everything just worked out brilliantly, too, because every time Sirius turned to look at me I was staring right at him. The fourth or fifth time he started looking seriously annoyed. Obviously my constant vigilance was foiling his evil plans..hehehe. I gave him a cheerful little wave each time he caught my eye.

Unfortunately my mission was over faster than the lesson- in fact there was still over an hour of class left.

I started tapping my feet on the stone floor of the classroom from boredom, looking around the room. Most students were working, cutting and measuring, or chatting with their partners. Mary was re-braiding her hair while Emma sprinkled in the powdered moonstone, and Lily was absent-mindedly stirring her and Dorcas' potion as it simmered. Her eyes flickered to mine when she felt me looking at her. She smiled, then looked at Snape, then quickly looked away again.

Tapping out the rhythm to one of my favorite Beatles songs ("Here Comes the Sun"), I checked on Sirius again just to make sure all was quiet on the battlefront. It seemed that way; he and James were talking intently in low voices, but I couldn't make out anything that they said. Then, Sirius glanced over at me again, and I did my little wave. He seemed to sigh in defeat, and took the cutting knife James passed to him.

"Can you stop that bloody tapping?" snapped Snape all of a sudden.

"Well if you'd let me do some of the work, I wouldn't be so bored, and then I wouldn't have to tap, now would I?" I retorted.

Snape only scowled in reply, but I stopped tapping none-the-less.

"So, why aren't you and Lily friends anymore?"

The look on Snape's face told me that if he could have gotten any paler, he would have. Obviously this wasn't a question he was asked very often.

"That's none of your business." he answered curtly.

I was going to pry more, but the way he said that made me realize that maybe it really wasn't my business. I remembered what I had decided the other night: that Severus Snape might be a good guy in the end, but right now he wasn't. Why should I expect him to trust me enough to reveal any sort of personal information? Why was I trying to get along with him? Right now, at this point in his life, he was planning to join the Death Eaters...

But I was still so curious. And just because I wanted to ask questions didn't mean I wanted to be best mates. So I continued, "I was just wondering what makes a bloke choose a road of prejudice and hatred over a best friend. It's just...really sad."

"You know nothing about that." Snape's black eyes were suddenly glaring daggers into mine. His tone was icy. The starthistle he had been grinding was forgotten.

"I guess I don't." I replied, my voice serious. "That's why I asked."

Severus went back to his potion and didn't really talk to me for the remainder of class, just gave one-word answers. He didn't even complain when I started tapping again, and eventually singing under my breath, this time along to "Hello Goodbye."

I was so glad when Slughorn came around again at the end of class to judge the finished product.

"Severus, Miss Porter." he sniffed at "our" potion. "Excellent, an O for the both of you."

Snape had already put away all his ingredients and left the moment Slughorn moved on to the next group. I was surprised he didn't even stick around to see Sirius discover his bag, because sure enough, barely a moment after Snape had made it out the door:

"OH BLOODY HELL!" Everyone left in the classroom turned to see Sirius holding a slimy, cockroach-covered book. Then he and the rest of the 7th year Gryffindors looked over at me.

"Wow, Black" I said loudly. "Must've been a big sneeze."

"You…" Sirius for once seemed at a loss for words as a few people in the room chuckled.

"Me?" I asked, feigning innocence.

"You should be afraid."

"Shakin' in my boots." I nodded, smiling. He just made it too easy. It made it all the sweeter that my revenge was made of the same substance he had laughed at me for being covered in earlier that week.

Slughorn, unsure of how to react, informed Sirius, "There's some cleaner in the back, if you want to use it, Mr Black. There's a special one, made for cleaning parchment..although I'm not sure how well it'll work on Flobberworm Mucus. The stuff's rather difficult to get off."

All-in-all, the day was going rather well, I decided, leaving the classroom a minute later with the girls, not without a glance back at Sirius, who was still preoccupied cleaning off his books.

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><p><strong>AN:** Woah guys, look at how fast I finished this chapter! And it's actually a long one too! (Well, by my standards).

So, I really like Snape, even though I don't really ship him with Lily. I just think he's super awesomely fun to read/write.

And btw, THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS ON THE LAST CHAPTER GUYS! :D

TheOneWhoReviews, Double thanks + virtual cookies for giving me a whole paragraph! Oh, and I give you one blink ;) hehehe. I tried to kind of hint at something happening for Lily Luna in the summary- the "LLP/?" part- because her romance is going to be more or less central later on, probably even more than L/J, since, you know, first person. Of course the whole time travel aspect does indeed complicate things..But yeah, it's going to happen. Not right away, but by Christmas (in the story) the ball's definitely going to be rolling.

Anyone have any guesses who the mysterious "?" part of the "LLP/?" equation might be? Or who do you hope it will be? Or, who do you absolutely hope it is NOT? Lol.

Beta spot still open.

Remember to feed the author; leave a comment to let me know you're reading! :)


	21. Runes Class

**A/N:** In case anyone wonders exactly what the Merlin are Younger Futhork and Medieval Futhark while reading this chapter, they're versions of the Runic alphabet. Etruskan is another type of ancient alphabet, which the other two possibly derived from.

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><p><strong>Chapter 21: Runes Class<strong>

Leaving the Potions classroom, the girls and I found James, Remus, and Peter standing around outside, probably waiting for Sirius, who was still in the classroom scrubbing off mucus.

"Hey, Luna, got a minute?" James asked as we approached them.

I told Lily, Emma, Dorcas, and Mary that I'd see them later, after Ancient Runes class, since I was the only 7th year Gryffindor girl taking it. Then I approached the three Marauders, my hand in my pocket, next to my wand. Just in case.

"A bit paranoid, are we?" James observed, smiling, apparently having noticed my mistrust even though I was trying to be subtle about it.

"Shouldn't I be?" I asked, smiling back, and studying the boys' face for signs of mischief. Growing up with my brother James, I'd gotten pretty damn good at spotting them: eyes slightly too wide in a slightly exaggerated look of innocence, or a tiny flicker of amusement at the corners of the mouth. Fortunately, I didn't see anything of the sort on the boys' faces. James looked amused, sure, but not in a way that suggested he was hiding something, and he had his hands where I could see them. Remus and Peter only gave me polite smiles of acknowledgement because they were still discussing the potion we had all just finished making.

"Well, maybe you should. But I'm still offended you don't trust _me_, of all people." said James, dramatically bringing his hand to his chest.

I scoffed. "Yeah. You are best friends with the git, are you not?"

"Sure. But see, if _I_ side with Sirius, you stand absolutely no chance." James explained. "And I'm enjoying this little rivalry too much to let it end that quickly. So, until further notice, I'm Switzerland."

"Really?" I asked, my eyes narrowed and my suspicion still not all cleared. "Swear on your honor."

"Swear on my honor." repeated James, sticking out his hand for me to shake. "I shall remain neutral in this conflict."

I accepted, a bit relieved to be honest. James seemed like the type to take his honor seriously, so I decided I had reason enough to trust him again.

"Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I was thinking of having a little get-together tomorrow night, a sort of welcome party for you." James revealed the reason he had called me over, "I figure as Head Boy it's practically my duty to make a new student feel welcome."

"Oh!" I said, surprised but rather honored. "What kind of party?"

"Just us older students at the Gryffindor Tower." he explained. "A bit of music, lots of snacks, a drinking game or two."

"We wanted to ask if you prefer butterbeer, or firewhiskey." put in Peter, who, along with Remus, had turned to join the conversation.

"There's a right and a wrong answer here." James said pointedly before I had a chance to reply.

"Pay no attention to him." Remus countered, giving James a look. "Not everyone likes to get shit-face drunk like you and Padfoot."

"Yeah," James brushed him off, "but I have a feeling Luna here is one of us."

"Firewhiskey sounds good." I confirmed, smiling. I mean, not that I wanted to get shit-face drunk, as Remus put it; I prefer my alcohol in moderate amounts after a couple of bad experiences in sixth year. But butterbeer? What were we, third years? Yet, I've never particularly liked the taste of firewhiskey.. Reconsidering, I added, "Although..my favorite's definitely Knotgrass Mead. Maybe get a bottle of both?"

"Knotgrass Mead." Petter thought aloud. "I'm sure Rosemerta's got some."

"Hey!" said James, suddenly excited. "What's your last class tomorrow?"

"Herbology, why?" I remembered because I had two free periods after that, which made Friday a very good day for me.

"Excellent." James grinned. "Us too. Fancy tagging along on our run to Hogsmeade?"

"Er.." I wasn't sure how to answer, since that 'us' certainly included Sirius.

"It's a small village outside the school." Remus explained, mistaking my hesitance for confusion. "Rather quaint, but they've got some nice shops."

"Yeah, you'll love it if you've never been before!" Peter told me.

"Well, the thing is," I started, looking at James, "You may be Switzerland, but no one else promised me neutrality. Especially right now, I don't think Sirius is very happy with me. It'd be a bit stupid of me to galavanting somewhere completely unfamiliar with a bloke who's holding a grudge and his three best friends."

"Well.." said James thoughtfully. "What if he agrees to make the trip off limits to pranking? Or at least, anything extreme."

"Alright!" I said after a moment of thought. "But only if he agrees." Honestly though, I was super excited to be going to Hogsmeade with the Marauders! They were the whole reason I got to sneak out there as much as I did back in my time with Emily and Hugo. And just overall, they seemed like a fun bunch. Dangerous, but fun. I bet we would take one of the secret passages on their map. It'd probably be one I'd already used a hundred times over, but still, I expected they knew a lot of Hogwarts secrets they never got to writing down anywhere and passing on to posterity. I sort of wished I could share my secrets, too, but knew it was too early for me to have an excuse to know any.

"So, after Herbology, then?" James asked.

"After Herbology." I confirmed, before giving the three of them a wave and hurrying off, a tad bit late to Ancient Runes.

Thankfully, the class was on the second floor, so I didn't have to run up too many flights of stairs to make it there. But still, Professor Babbling was already talking when I walked in. I sat down in the only empty seat, and took out some parchment to take a few notes. Generally, I'm not one to write things down, but notetaking was a bit of a necessity in Runes class, since it was otherwise impossible to memorize all the foreign-looking characters.

After another minute the Professor finished talking, and we were given an assignment to translate a passage of some runic scripture.

"Five points from Gryffindor for your tardiness, Miss Porter." Babbling said as she walked past, giving me the page I was to translate.

"Merlin.." I said as I examined what was written on the parchment. "What language is this? I don't know any of it.."

"It's Etruskan." answered the rather small Ravenclaw boy with whom I was sharing a desk. When that obviously didn't clear it up for me, he asked "Need some help?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." I said with a bit of relief, turning to the him. And then I noticed something. His two front teeth, and the way they overlapped a little..

"Erm, I'm Cassius. Cassius Ackerley." he said, reaching out a hand and no longer showing his teeth. I guess I was staring a bit.

But it wasn't because I was trying to be rude or anything. I was staring because I was reminded of someone I knew, and I realized whom right when he said his name: Cassius Ackerley happened to be my old Ancient Runes professor. He had the same smile, but the curly brown hair he had in my time had been peppered with gray. Also, the boy I was looking at seemed a bit nervous to be talking to me, while as a professor Ackerley had been always cool-headed and self-assured.

"Oh!" I suddenly realized he was expecting me to shake his hand, and not just keep staring at him. "I'm Luna Porter."

"You're the transfer student then, in Gryffindor? Well at least now I'm not the only one in the class who doesn't fit in." I raised my eyebrows and he explained, "I'm a fourth year. The only one here."

"But isn't this N.E.W.T. level?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, but when I started this class I was already a bit ahead, so they let me skip a few years."

"A few years? You mean three?" If I hadn't been staring at him in amazement before, I was now. "What are you, some sort of genius brainiac?"

Ackerley blushed a little. "No, I haven't skipped ahead in any of my other classes! I've just always had an interest in history and ancient languages."

I nodded, smiling because I got a sudden image in my head of a baby popping into the world, ready to start translating Proto-Norse. "So why Ancient Runes?"

"It's my uncle," Ackerley explained. "I was raised by him, and he owns an antique store down in Diagon Alley. Or, it's more of a bookstore than an antique store - almost all of it is books, old books. My uncle sort of collects them."

"Hm." I said, but not in a disinterested way. I mean, normally I wouldn't want to sit around and listen to any old bloke's life story, but this bloke was the one who assigned the project which led me to the past in the first place… Also, he was skilled with reading runes, _and_ he was telling me about an uncle who specializes in old books! It just all seemed somehow connected to me, like too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Ackerley was still talking, his cheeks a bit pink. "I spent a lot of time in there. Bartleby's Antiques, it's called. My uncle taught me how to read some of the books, so by the time I was a third year, I was pretty familiar with both the Younger Futhork and Medieval Futhark alphabets, which is all you really learn at the O.W.L. level. So I took the test, did alright, and they let me skip ahead."

"You took an O.W.L. in third year?" I asked flatly.

"Well, the end of second." corrected Cassius.

"You know, it would normally wound my pride to get classwork help from a fourth year," I admitted, staring at him now for a completely different reason, "But with you, I'll make an exception."

"Just with Runes." put in Cassius, seeming desperate to prove he wasn't some sort of freak."I probably couldn't help you with anything else."

It was a bit funny to see him like this, as someone obviously used to being teased, and compare him to the older man I used to know. The older Ackerley hadn't hesitated to give me detention for setting off a few Exploding Whizz Poppers in his classroom once. The Ackerley in front of me seemed glad that I was even talking to him.

Luckily, with a lot of help from Cassius, I was able to finish the assignment by the end of the class period.

Unluckily, it looked like the homework was also in Etruskan. And even if I could've found a dictionary in the library, it would still take an eternity to look up every single word.

But Cassius seemed to notice my disheartened look and came to the rescue once again.

"Would you want to meet me in the library one of these days? You should probably copy my notes from earlier, and I could help if you have trouble again." he said as we left the classroom.

"Oh Merlin, yes!" I said, relieved. "When are you free?"

"I'm in the library most days." he told me. "Except Wednesdays, which is Frog Choir practice. But our next class is Tuesday, so you'd probably want to meet before then."

"Er, yeah." I said. '_In the library most days?_' I really pitied the kid. "Well, I have plans tomorrow, so how about Saturday night?"

"Sure." he said, giving me a wave as our ways parted, and I walked off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

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><p><strong>AN**: I wonder, does anyone remember a Professor Ackerley from Chapter 1? Hehe, probably not since he didn't make much of an appearance. He's the one Lily Luna had to hide from in the trophy room on her way back from the kitchens, so he's been a long time coming! Lol. He's one of the very few important characters in here that I made up 100%.

As for what you guys had to say about Lily Luna's mystery lover… Looks like there were 3 votes/guesses for Snape and 1 for Sirius. Ah, I really want to comment but I shall refrain! Lol. No one wants me to spoil it, right? And anyway, I imagine how things develop with Lily Luna and ? is probably more important and interesting than the simple fact of who it is. At least I hope so. But if anyone has any questions that they need answered because it will totally make or break this story for them, feel free to PM me!

Beta spot still open. I'd be awesome if someone other than my barely willing boyfriend could proofread for me! Lol.

(Edit Note: I posted a bunch of character sketches on deviantArt! There's a link in my profile (looks like I'm not allowed to put links directly in here). You guys should check it out! They're in my scrap gallery because the photos aren't the best quality, and most of them aren't colored, but if there's interest I can scan and photoshop them in the future!)

Remember to review please :D


	22. Outfit Selection

**Chapter 22: Outfit Selection**

That evening, I sat down to do some homework, once again managing to snatch my favorite much coveted window seat. Or at least it used to be coveted. Really, it was as though my new dorm mates didn't care for it at all! I used to have to fight Emily for it. (Generally that involved us both cramming into the nook facing each other, the winner determined by who would manage to shove her feet into the other's face faster.)

But now I only had the giant teddy bear to share it with, and its feet were considerably less unpleasant than Emily's had been. A plus, really, I told myself sadly.

_In fact, this makes a rather nice cushion,_ I thought, leaning into its soft, fuzzy body, and opening my Charms textbook.

But I hadn't managed to even read past the second paragraph when a strange sound interrupted me, and I looked over to my right. It was Socks, Lily's cat, staring up at me, flashing her teeth and letting out an angry, drawn-out _meeeow_.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, I with a look of confusion and the cat still aggressive, her currently deep purple fur standing on end. I decided the best course of action was to call out to Lily, who was across the room practicing some transfiguration spell, instead of waiting for the cat to launch itself at my face.

"Hey, Lily?!" I asked, still not taking my eyes off Socks as she stared up at me, not moving a muscle. "I think something's bothering your cat."

"Was that Socks making that noise?" she came over to see for herself. And sure enough, Socks let out a hiss this time, still giving me the death glare with her pale green eyes. Lily frowned, "What is it Socrates?" She turned to me, "Do you happen to have some mice in your pockets? Or anything like that?"

"Er, no." I said. "Not to my knowledge."

But the damn cat just kept on making angry noises. I had no idea what her problem was. I got a strong urge to make a face at her, but refrained since Lily would see.

"I'm sorry." sighed Lily, grabbing a bag of treats off her bedside table. "She's not always the friendliest. Not that it's normal for her to get like _this_. I'm sure she'll warm up to you."

The treat seemed to interest Socks enough for her to finally look away, and once Lily began petting her head she seemed more or less soothed. Yet even as Lily picked her up and went back to her seat, the cat let out a small growl with a last look at me.

Unsure of what to think of that, since the cat had seemed to like me well enough the whole week up until now, I decided to just go back to the Charms book. After all, sometimes cats are a mystery; who knows what the hell goes on inside their sneaky little convoluted minds.

I started reading again, but was once more interrupted not a minute later. This time it was Mary, who had just returned from Quidditch practice and sat down on a bed near me.

"So Luna, what's this I'm hearing about a party tomorrow?" she asked with piqued interest. "James just told me."

I had informed Lily, Emma, and Dorcas about it during dinner, but Mary hadn't been there because she'd sat with her Hufflepuff boyfriend.

"I don't know much about, it to be honest." I shrugged. "James is the one planning it."

"Yeah, but I meant what are you going to _wear_?" she said emphatically, looking at me with great expectation.

"Er.." Honestly I hadn't thought about that. I didn't even know I was _supposed_ to think about that. I imagined the thing would be pretty casual, since most house parties I'd been to were. "Probably just my school robes." I replied. I didn't have anything else anyway.

"What?" Mary looked at me, horrified. "You can't wear _school robes_! It's in _your_ honor. You've got to stand out! And look good!"

Emma, who was laying nearby on her bed reading something, put in, "Sorry Luna. We probably should've warned you about her. She does this to everyone."

"Well some people appreciate it." Mary retorted, throwing her a look, "And it's everyone except you."

"Yeah she's given up on me a long time ago. Thank Merlin for that." Emma muttered before going back to her reading.

"Really! When's the last time the lot of you had boyfriends?" Mary addressed all the girls. "It's been forever since we've had any really fun topics for girl talk!" Mary looked at me, hopeful. "I'm hoping you'll prove to be more fun than this lot. The three of them might as well join a nunnery."

"Hey!" Lily, at least, seemed indignant. "I was dating Patrick Ogden just last May, if you don't remember."

"And that was the most boring relationship in the history of relationships." replied Mary with a pointed look. "I have no idea why you two were even together. All you ever did with each other was study."

"We had end of the year exams!" Lily defended herself again. "And it was a perfectly pleasant relationship. We only broke up because Pat could only take so much of Potter's pranking. He ended up in the hospital wing! Twice!"

Mary only mouthed, "_Pat_." at me in reply, as though it was the name of some sort of disease.

"Perhaps, Mary," Emma spoke up again, "not all of us feel the need to get boys in order to fill in a great gaping chasm inside of ourselves, which is the place where a mentally healthy person's self esteem would reside."

"Anyway!" Mary ignored her and instead turned towards me again. "What other clothes have you got? You've been here a whole week and I have yet to see the contents of your wardrobe!"

I guess I was going to have to disappoint her. "I don't really have anything besides the uniform." I said. I used to have other clothes, of course. We were only required to wear the school robes for classes and mealtimes and stuff like that. I had always worn my own clothes to Hogsmeade, just because wearing black all the time felt a bit drab, especially on sunny days. And obviously there used to be my Quidditch uniform.

Mary didn't look as put out by my answer as I expected her to. She did give me a bewildered look as she learned of my apparent lack of outfit variety, but the excitement quickly returned to her face. "Well, you're going to have to borrow something of mine then!"

She didn't wait for my reply before rushing over to her wardrobe. "Let's see.. we don't want anything too formal.."

I got up from my seat and approached the rummaging Mary, curious as to what she might have for me. Even though I hadn't expected to dress up, I was glad she was helping me to. But it wasn't because I wanted to stand out, as Mary put it. Honestly, with my hair and my height I generally had no problems with that, even now that people no longer knew me as Harry Potter's daughter. I was just glad Mary was treating me like a friend. Swapping clothes was something I used to do with Emily. And yeah, it would be nice to wear something other than the second-hand robes given to me by Dumbledore.

I had little idea of what to expect, but what Mary pulled out of her wardrobe surprised me none-the-less.

"It's a Muggle dress. My mum's a Muggle and we go shopping together, so I've got tons of Muggle stuff in here." she explained and motioned to the large armoire.

But even that didn't explain the rather eye-stabbing, psychedelic pattern of the minidress in front of me, until I remembered that it was, indeed, the 70s.

I suppose I must have been speechless, but thankfully Mary seemed to read my expression. "Yeah, you're right." she said, throwing the dress back in the wardrobe. "It would totally clash with your hair."

That was definitely true. And I'm sure that the dress was very fashionable for its time, but I found the sheer amount of neon hues overwhelming to say the least. And I'm a person who likes bright colors.

A few seconds later Mary presented me with another ensemble, this time it was thankfully black, though entirely covered in sparkles. "So what about this?" She held out the matching tanktop and bellbottom pants.

Though it was an improvement, it reminded me of the disco style, which I'd learned about in Muggle Studies. All I'd need to complete the look was an afro and some platforms.

"Do you have anything a little more subtle?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Why would you want subtle?" asked Mary. "Don't you want the boys to notice you?"

"Er," I said. Normally that would have sounded like fun, but honestly boys were the last thing on my mind this past week. Plus something told me dating around in the past might be a bad idea. "Honestly I'm not really interested in anyone now. Not in that way."

Mary raised one of her very neat eyebrows, "Really?" She put her hands on her hips and scrunched her face up in thought. "Well Remus and Peter are nothing interesting; at least they're definitely not _my_ type, so I can understand. And Sirius is a downright arse - still, doesn't mean he's not worth snogging. But James seems to have taken a proper liking to you."

"Yeah, as a friend!" I said quickly. "He likes Lily, remember?" Of course there was more reason than that for why I'd never consider James, but I couldn't really reveal that bit.

Mary waved off my excuse. "Well perhaps if he sees you looking quite dashing, it would help him forget about her."

"I second that!" Lily piped up from her homework. "There's nothing I would like better."

"You guys would be cute together!" Mary gushed. "You've got to admit he's attractive, right?"

"Perhaps. But I really don't care." I said with finality, quickly changing the subject. "So do you have anything else for me?"

Mary dived back into her closet, but to my surprise Lily got up and walked over to us.

"If you want, Luna, I also have clothes you can borrow." she said. "They're mostly Muggle as well, but they're a little less, um, extreme than Mary's." she finished as Mary pulled out a pair of banana yellow pants and striped half-shirt.

"Fine, you help her Lily." Mary conceded seeing my none-too-excited reaction to her choice, though she didn't seem at all put-out. "But I call dibbs on doing your hair and makeup tomorrow!" she winked.

Lily's wardrobe was smaller, but way better organized and seemed to consist of tamer colors. I was very grateful for that, but I couldn't help thinking that Lily was doing this because she was hoping that James would, indeed, start to like me instead. And that thought was rather unpleasant, and a little weird.

"Are you looking for something classy, or more fun?" she asked, showing off the selection.

"Honestly it's a little hard to pull off the classy look with hair like mine." I replied. Whenever I tried in the past I always ended up looking a joke.

"I've got a few bottles of Sleakeasy's stocked up." Mary promised, who was still closely observing the outfit selection process from her four poster.

"Oh trust me," I said, horrific memories from fifth year coming back to me. "That stuff doesn't work on my hair. It just makes it want to rebel even more."

Lily smiled. "Alright, something fun it is."

With the help of the girls I ended up settling on a cream-colored blouse with a pale, flowery design and a few ruffles, along with a deep blue, high-waisted skirt.

"It's so perfect!" Mary was practically clapping. "The ruffles totally flatter your small chest, and your legs look amazing in that skirt!" Suddenly, she gasped, "I've got the perfect shoes for you, too!"

And in fact, they were perfect, with their wooden heels and thick, purple ribbons. Plus, they were so close to my size that I didn't even need cast a resizing charm.

"Thanks so much you two!" I told them, appreciating myself in the mirror with a wide smile. Showing off the outfit to their approving nods made me feel like a normal teenage girl again, having girly time with her friends.

In response to my smiles, the two of them gave me the thumbs up, exchanging satisfied looks.

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><p><strong>AN**: Omg, I'm so glad to be on a break from school! I've just finished reading through the whole of this fic and my interest in it is definitely rekindled you guys! I just had a bit of difficulty with this chapter and it gave me writers block for a while. But I'm back with even more great ideas and energy to write them out!

But rereading everything made me realize even more, I NEED A BETA. If no one offers at this point, I'm just going to start messaging random people who proofread Harry Potter stuff. Perhaps that's how this is supposed to be done?

Please review guys! :)


	23. The Firehead Incident

**Chapter 23: The Firehead Incident**

That morning Professor Nnamani continued covering the topic of cursed objects, handing out hexed jewelry to everyone after a brief lecture. Thanks to Pettigrew, the whole class quickly learned that the jewelry caused one to start vomiting slugs upon physical contact, but thankfully the professor had a quick antidote potion on hand.

I was careful not to touch the necklace placed on my own desk as I cast a Revealing Spell. It took me a while to get it right and move on to the countercharm, because I found my find wandering.

For one, I no longer knew what was going on with my grandparents. I had been hoping to ask James what happened in rounds the other night. What made him disregard my advice and ask Lily out again? I had meant to ask him the previous day, but by the time I picked out that outfit and finished my homework, it was too late. I checked the Map and saw that he was sitting around in his dorm, on his bed, showing no signs of planning to move.

The dot of Sirius Black, however, had been hovering in the center of the dormitory, moving around a bit here and there. I decided it was greatly suspicious. It appeared he was brewing a potion… made a note to myself to double check the safety of all my food and drink for the next several days.

Also, I got an owl during breakfast. I opened the little parcel to find a pouch of five galleons, and a note from Dumbledore that said this was my allotment of gold for the term. Even though it wasn't much, it did quite a bit to cheer my mood. It meant I'd at least be able to buy myself butterbeer. I even had enough to get dungbombs and frog spawn, though there was no way I could afford any of the fancier Zonko's stuff. Still, the coins made me look forward to the Hogsmeade trip all the more.

"_Specialis Revelio_." I said once again, pointing my wand at the intricate pendant which lay on my desk. This time, there was no emanating green light which would indicate that a hex was present. I smiled in delight.

However, in the next moment I noticed there was an odd smell...Like something was burning. It was acrid, and strong, not the smell of a normal fire. I glanced around the classroom, trying to spot the source of the odor, but noticed nothing unusual. Everyone was still practicing.

Rather confused and thinking I must've badly messed up the charm, I nudged Lily, who was sitting beside me. "Hey, do you smell that?" I asked her.

But as Lily looked at me, her eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth in horror. "Luna! Your hair!"

Her expression was directed a few inches above my face. Alarmed now, I jerked my hand to check on the top of my head. What I felt was a soft, warm tickling.

"Merlin's Pants!" I exclaimed, seriously freaked out. I jumped up from my chair in a panic, which only made the whole class turn to look.

There was a shriek, a few gasps, and a loud bark of laughter.

"_Aguamenti_!" called Lily, who jumped up right after me, gathering enough sense to try and put out the fire.

But even as the water poured over me, I could tell that the fire still burned, resistant to conjured liquid. I saw its orange glow from the corners of my field of vision. It licked at my neck.

I frantically grabbed at my braids, which were barely there at this point. Bits of burnt hair fell onto my robes, dirtying them. It still smelled something awful.

"Black! Stop it right now!" I shrieked at the bloke who was sitting a few desks behind me, not even trying to hide his amusement. This was clearly his work, bloody douchebag!

In response, Sirius exclaimed, utterly gleeful. "Why look, there's a bucket!" He pointed.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the large, metal bucket which had somehow ended up sitting on a spare desk in the back. It was filled to the brim with water.

The nearest to it was Peter, who looked as surprised as anyone to see that my head was on fire. So it didn't take him long to grab the container, sprint up to my desk, and dump the liquid over my hair.

I was a little taller than him, though, so the bucket ended up overturned on my head. All I could see was the inside of the curved, cool, metal container, and all I could hear was the sizzle of an extinguished fire and Professor Nnamani's worried voice asking if I was ok.

Slowly, I took the bucket off of my head.

I was met with the worried looks of Nnamani and the Gryffindor girls, who had been sitting next to me.

I felt my head, which seemed to still have a few half-burnt-off patches of hair on it, along with some bald spots.

"Yeah..I'm alright." I replied, once I finished reassuring myself of that fact. My skin, at least, didn't seem to be harmed all that badly, although it stung in a very strange way.

"Lily, why don't you take your friend to the hospital wing?" the professor suggested. And for once I was grateful to be escorted because I was feeling a tad bit disoriented. And I could only imagine what I actually looked like. My hair…

I glared daggers at Sirius as we left, but he only gave me a smile in reply before shrugging his shoulders at Nnamani, who began questioning his involvement in the incident.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Don't worry, Luna" Lily reassured me before leaving me in the hands of the nurse, "Madame Pomfrey will cast a Hair Growing Charm, and you'll look normal again in a jiffy."

I hoped she was right as I sat down on one of the hospital beds, and Pomfrey began to closely examine my head. Because this was personal. Not only was that a terrifying experience, but it made me look stupid in front of the class. And if it meant I'd have to walk around bald now...

_I see that we're taking this a step further, Sirius_. I thought vengefully.

"No damage to the skin or the scalp…except for maybe the follicles." Pomfrey muttered, observing. "I take it this fire spell, it didn't hurt very much?"

"It stung." I replied. "but not all that badly."

"Mhm." said the nurse. "Unusual… but most likely an altered form of _Incendio_. Well, I think the best thing to do here is sheer off the rest of the hair - we don't want you looking all patchy now, do we dear? Then we'll apply healing ointment and hope for the best."

"Healing ointment?" I asked, rather confused. "I thought I wasn't hurt?"

"It's for your hair, dear." Pomfrey explained with some sympathy, "It seems that the liquid used to douse out the fire had traces of Baldness Potion. Any effects that a growing charm might've had would be counteracted."

I grimaced, my expression growing sour again. I should have suspected..._Why look, there's a bucket_? I should've just let the fire put itself out.

Pomfrey continued, applying something cool and soothing onto my head. "If you use this paste on your scalp every night before sleep, it will speed up the growth. Your hair should be back to normal in a week or so."

I sniffed at the jar Pomfrey handed to me "...Is this made of Flobberworm Mucus?"

"That is the main ingredient." she confirmed. "Now, I'll get you a hat to wear for the rest of today's lessons." She left for a moment.

I was fuming so much remembering Black's smug, stupid face that I was surprised the mucus paste didn't just evaporate straight off of me.

Pomfrey returned with a small selection for me. I ended up picking a knit, bright orange hat with a blue pom-pom because it was the only one which didn't show my ears sticking out. Plus it felt unnatural not to have any orange on my head.

_I shall show him no mercy_, I promised myself, examining my reflection in Pomfrey's large, hand-held mirror.

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><p><strong>AN**: Oh it's OOONNNN. Lol.

I'm so glad to finally have written this chapter! I've been planning it for so long, I have illustrations for it from like two years ago, lol.

Also, I finally got a beta! :D So we're working through the story from the beginning and fixing things up a little.

And thanks so much for your reviews from last time, guys! Especially my regular readers&reviewers! It is thanks to you (and winter break, and my need for distraction) that I post this within a few days of the previous chapter! So yes - keep reviewing! Or start to! :)


	24. Trip to Hogsmeade

**A/N: Hey guys, it's been a while. But, I actually have a reason! I thought I'd try out writing a normal-length chapter with like a climax and everything. So enjoy a chapter that's like three times as long as usual!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 24: Trip to Hogsmeade<strong>

As expected, I got quite a few stares walking into the Great Hall twenty minutes after lunch started. It seemed that everyone had already heard of the hair burning incident, or maybe they were just wondering where my bangs went and why I was wearing a ridiculous hat.

I wasn't in the best mood, so I flipped the bird at one Hufflepuff girl who was giving me a particularly nasty look as I passed by her. Some people were so_ rude_, as though what was going on on my head was any of her business.

The girls all looked at me with sympathy as I joined them at the Gryffindor table.

"So Pomfrey couldn't get it to grow back then?" Mary asked the unnecessary question.

"Bloody git put something in the bucket of water." I explained, shooting a glare down the table where Sirius sat. He looked back at me and wiggled his hands near his head, mimicking flames, while wearing a comical look of mock terror. I shook my head at him slowly, "You have no idea what I'm going to do to you, Black. No idea."

"You're not going to stop?" asked Lily, slightly surprised.

"Of course not!" I said, turning away from the sight of Sirius laughing hysterically. "This is only the beginning. Why would I stop?"

"Um, because he burned off all your hair?" Mary put in. "The stakes seem to be getting high."

"Exactly," continued Lily in a concerned tone. "I'm just pointing out you might want to be the bigger person and end this before he starts depriving you of your limbs next."

"Oh no." I shook my head again. It felt weird not to feel the hair on my neck as I did so. "It's my turn now. I'm not stopping before I deprive him of something more precious than limbs." I mean really, ending this now? Where was my grandmother's sense of justice and Gryffindor spirit?

"More precious than limbs?" asked Dorcas, clueless in her innocence.

"One doesn't need to observe Black for long to notice where his values lie." I said cryptically, then added, "I mean, this applies to practically any bloke."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Emma looked at me with eyebrows raised in amusement as well as surprise. "Are you planning to take away Sirius Black's manhood?"

I smiled.

"Woah," Mary widened her eyes. "Isn't that going a bit far?"

"Only for like a day or two." I waved my hand dismissively. "I'm not about to permanently castrate the bloke. I'm not quite on that level of vengeful. I'm just going for what hurts the most. The thing is though, what I'm planning requires a certain potion, one that's rather difficult to make." I looked to Lily as I said this last bit, the request evident in my expression. I remembered that it was mentioned that she was amazing at Potions.

"What, me?" Lily indicated herself with her fork in surprise, dropping a piece of sausage onto her lap.

"Well it's not like anyone would know you had anything to do with it." I said as she wiped at her skirt with a napkin. "And I'd rather not attempt brewing it on my own and end up with something that might do permanent damage."

"When you put it like that," snorted Emma, "You'd really be doing Black a favor here, Lils."

I knew that Lily agreeing to help me wasn't exactly likely. She was Head Girl, after all, and seemed to disapprove of my situation with Sirius more than anyone. Still, she never outright forbid me from going after him. That made me think that maybe, possibly, I could sway her.

"Not that I would mind seeing Black taken down a peg in that respect." Lily finally replied, "But I hardly think it would be appropriate for me to help."

"Oh appropriate-shmappropriate!" exclaimed Mary.

"You know Lils, you used to have a much better sense of adventure before you became Head Girl." put in Dorcas.

"That's because Dumbledore gave me this position because he expects me to be responsible." Lily said. "I'm still adventurous! Just.. responsibly so."

To me that seemed like practically a contradiction, but I decided against saying anything. Lily didn't seem like someone to be easily convinced. It was clear that if she was going to help me, she would have to come to that decision on her own.

* * *

><p>I didn't do so well in Herbology that day. I ended up in a rather violent struggle with the Dancing Jigglebush I was supposed to be tending, after it snatched off my hat with its thorny vines. Even worse, it kept dancing around with it so it took several minutes to get it back. Sirius Black, and indeed the majority of the class, found it bloody hilarious, so after the whole ordeal was over I was imagining strangling the stupid git's neck. Unfortunately it wasn't his neck but my Jigglebush that happened to be between my hands. Professor Sprout ended up giving me a D for Dreadful because by the end of the class my Dancing Jigglebush neither jiggled nor danced anymore.<p>

"I can't believe you're still going to Hogsmeade with them after this morning." said Dorcas after Sprout moved on to give out more grades. I'd told the girls about my afternoon plans with the Marauders the previous night, but apparently they thought I might reconsider after the morning's events. "How could you possibly want to face Sirius right now?"

"Oh I want to do more than face him." I said, still angry about getting the D. And about my hair.

"I thought Potter said you had to refrain from pranking?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I'm not planning to pull any pranks, per say." I explained. " Doesn't mean I have to be nice though. And anyway, it would feel good to get off the grounds and have fun at Hogsmeade a bit. Black isn't the only one I'm going with, you know."

"I don't understand why you'd want to spend time with the rest of them either." said Lily, confused. Then she gave me a knowing look, "Are you sure you don't fancy Potter?"

Oh bloody hell. I paused in the middle of putting away my notes and textbook. "Yes." I said, pointedly. "I'm sure."

"Sure about what?" James was apparently standing behind us, his bag over his shoulder, ready to leave.

"Oh nothing, nothing." said Lily in a strangely sing-song voice. I gave her a look of annoyance while James just looked confused.

"Alright." he said. "Well I just wanted to let you know Luna, the boys and I will be waiting in the common room. Got to drop off our school things, bring along certain items, you know." Then his gaze shifted to Lily, and a confident smirk began to grow on his face. "By the way Evans, why don't you join the five of us? Have some fun for once."

"Actually Potter, I have some paperwork to do this afternoon. You know, those detention slips we were supposed to go through and organize tonight?" said Lily, her tone more than chilly.

James shrugged. "I just figured that welcoming our new classmate to Hogwarts is more important than organizing detention slips. You don't have to do them right now either."

To me that seemed like a pretty good point, but Lily only tightened her mouth and replied, "We need to keep on schedule, and someone has to do the hard work. You go have fun with your friends."

"Your loss." gave up James, before leaving the three of us to finish packing our things.

* * *

><p>The four boys were indeed in the common room when I came down after leaving my bag in the girls' dormitory. They were waiting for me by the fireplace.<p>

"Hey!" I smiled walking over and greeting each of them. "James. Remus. Arsebag. Peter." My smile turned rather ironic for the last two.

"Good to see you too, Firehead." said Sirius in a way that told me he had been waiting to start calling me that. "You know, I had thought I was doing all our eyes a favor when I burned off your hair, but that hat you've got on now is almost worse than the atrocity that resided there previously."

My eyes narrowed and I was about to reply, but James was quick to intervene before things progressed. "Alright, you two, let's keep this civil. We all agreed there'll be no pranking, remember? Everyone gets to drink their butterbeers in peace today. I want you to shake on it."

Sirius shrugged and began to reach out his hand, but I wasn't about to let him off that easy. When my hand came out of my pocket, it had a wand in it.

"_Peponcaputis_!"

It seemed no one was expecting me to act so suddenly. My jinx perfectly hit its target before anyone had time to react, and a moment later there was a large, orange pumpkin where Sirius Black's stupid, smug face used to be. He stumbled back, either from the force of the spell, or disorientation caused by the vegetable now encasing his head. His pumpkin-head hit the mantelpiece above the fireplace with a thump, and soon the other handful of students in the Gryffindor common room started laughing along with me.

"Luna! The agreement was-" James began, trying to keep his voice strict. I could see the laughter in his eyes though.

"No pranking." I cut him off. "That wasn't a prank. That was me simply jinxing the git. No trickery or deception involved. Plus, it's October. I just wanted to show a little Halloween spirit."

It took several minutes for the other Marauders to get the pumpkin off their friend's head. I relished Black's muffled sounds of protest when Remus cast a Severing Charm that was a little too powerful for the task.

"Bloody careful! My head's in here!" he exclaimed, or at least it sounded like something along those lines.

After the whole thing was over and Sirius was properly cleaned up, James decided to alter the agreement to ban all hostile spell-casting in addition to pranking. This time, I agreed and shook on it peacefully. The image of Black's head emerging from a pumpkin, covered in seeds and pulp, gave me enough satisfaction to last for a while. Finally, I was in a good mood.

"That was horrible sportsmanship." Sirius grumbled at me when we finally started heading out of the common room.

I snorted. "Well at least you didn't have to wear it around like that for like a week." Then I added, with a wry smile, "And anyways, all is fair in love and war."

"Oh I'll keep that in mind." replied Black.

The boys decided the best way to sneak out of the castle was through a secret passageway behind a large mirror, located on the fourth floor. It was one I knew about from the Map, but never used because it had caved in long before I came to Hogwarts. It was considerably roomier and made for a more comfortable walk than the passage under the one-eyed witch, which is the one I always used.

"How did you guys find this?" I asked something I'd always wondered about as the five of us made our way down, holding lit wands aloft.

"Marauders' secret." James replied with a cryptic smile.

Considering I was his granddaughter, and already knew a good portion of their Marauder secrets, I felt like I had a bit of a right to know. But of course I couldn't say any of that, so I just accepted the answer in disappointment. Maybe if I got to spend enough time with the boys, they would one day decide I'm trustworthy enough to confide in.

The passageway ended in a short climb up a ladder that took us to a metal grate, which James opened with a tap of his wand. I climbed out after him, and saw that we ended up in a small alleyway near the center of the village.

"We're only going to the Three Broomsticks today, since we still have to get back and prepare for the party." James told me while we waited for the other three. "You haven't had the full Hogsmeade experience though until you've been to Zonko's, and Honeydukes. "

When the five of us walked in, I noticed the pub only had a dozen or so other customers. It was unusual for it to be so empty, but it was only midday and of course no other students were there. We sat down beside a large window, where a stream of warm sunlight pooled on our table.

"Ah, it's you boys again. Sneaking out of school as usual?" A very young, attractive Madam Rosmerta was quick to come to our table. Last time I saw her she had had streaks of gray hair, but now she looked only five years my elder. Still, I recognized her by her dirty blonde curls and tendency to show off her cleavage. When she noticed me she said in a joking manner, "Oh, and what's this? Corrupting the other students to join in on your mischief-making ways?"

"Corrupting? Rosie, you wound us!" exclaimed James dramatically.

"We're merely helping Luna here assimilate the culture of Hogwarts and all the benefits that go along with it." said Remus innocently. I noticed that out of the four boys, he was the best at sounding innocent because he had mastered the use of a solemn, matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm a new student." I replied in response to Rosmerta's curious look. "Luna Porter. Just transferred here from the States."

"Ah! Welcome dear." She smiled at me even more widely. "In honor of your transfer and your first time here, I'll bring you our famous butterbeer, free of charge. How 'bout that?"

"That'd be great!" I replied, honestly grateful considering how little money I had now. "Wow, she's friendly." I said to the boys when she took the rest of our orders and left.

"She likes us." explained James, his tone cocky. "No one can resist the Marauder charm." But as an afterthought he then quietly added, "Except for Lily, I guess."

"It is pretty helpful having Rosmerta on our side. We get a lot of stuff for our parties from her. Plus she never tosses us out for pulling pranks." spoke Peter, then continued addressing Sirius. "Padfoot, remember last year's Hogsmeade Halloween trip, we had you slip some Skelemorph Potion into the Slytherins' pitcher of butterbeer? I didn't think Snape could get any uglier, but those horns, teeth, and hooves didn't help."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "Yeah, and one of the third years burst into tears at the sight of him? Bloody brilliant."

I chuckled along with the rest of them and felt quite at home as the boys did more reminiscing. I even told them about one or two of my own escapades with my old friends, of course leaving out the appropriate details.

I had already known that James and I got along brilliantly, but now I was glad to find out it was easy to have a good time hanging around the rest of them too. Perhaps Sirius was a bit of a rude git, and Remus was slightly too reserved, and Peter, well, I tried not to think too much into what he was. But as a whole, the Marauders were exactly who I always expected them to be.

About half-way through our drinks though, James asked me a question. "So Luna, I've been wondering something. Why did your family decide to move back to England now, of all times?"

"Yeah, don't they know about You-Know-Who?" Peter added.

Apparently this was a question I would get asked a lot. I replied to them with the same thing I'd told the girls.

"Your dad's an Auror?" asked James with enthusiasm. "What's his name?"

"Er-" I hesitated for a second. James didn't notice though and continued talking.

"My Dad works at the Ministry too. Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He goes abroad often. Perhaps the two of them have met? If the Ministry asked the U.S. for your father specifically, it's likely they know each other."

"I shouldn't really be talking about this." I said, thinking quickly. "My dad goes undercover a lot. I don't really know what he's doing, but he's likely not spending time in the office. It's probably very top-secret, you know? I shouldn't even give you his name, really."

The boys exchanged looks at that, probably thinking that if it was really that top-secret, why did I reveal that my dad was an Auror in the first place. But thankfully, they let me change the topic without further comment.

"By the way James, Lily told me you asked her out again after rounds. I thought you weren't going to do that after our talk in Muggle Studies?"

"Oh, that." said James, rather sheepish. "I tried to, I did. But the thing is that's just how we do it, how we end rounds. The whole time I was trying to follow your advice, she still just kept telling me to sod off. I asked her so many questions. I even asked her how her homework was going, for Merlin's sake, and even that she somehow managed to take the wrong way. So on the way back I just couldn't think of anything else decent to say, and she was just all icy silence. It was almost awkward. So I asked her out, and she told me off for it. After the whole questioning experience, that actually felt like a relief."

I had expected his story to be more or less that, after what Lily had said. I guess I wanted to believe there was a different explanation and James was slightly more competent than to mess it up in such a way. But obviously, if James was actually competent in such matters, he'd already be dating Lily.

"You know, asking her questions was only a small part of my advice, right?" I asked a little exasperated. "The more important bits were try to act genuine and respectful. Pay attention to what she wants and give that to her."

James raised an eyebrow. "You think I should stuff my broom up my arse and go jump in the lake? Because that's what she told me she wants at some point in that conversation."

Sirius laughed at that. "I'm telling you mate, that one's got anger issues. I'll never understand why you haven't given up on her yet."

"Because I can't give up on her!" exclaimed James, his hands clutching his glass. "Lily Evans isn't someone you can just bloody forget. And if she ever does change her mind and agree to a date - however unlikely that is - if she does, all this will be worth it a bloody hundred times over." He downed the rest of his drink.

"The girl's driving you mental, Prongs." Peter said.

After a few seconds of silence, Remus spoke up. "You know, I still think if you just gave her some space, she'll start seeing you from a different perspective."

"You know I don't want to hear that, Mooney." James ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Remember last April? I've already tried your advice."

"Yeah, but that was bad timing." Remus said quietly. "That was right before she started dating the Ogden bloke. Plus she was studying for end of term exams. Obviously, she was distracted and didn't have much time to notice you changed. You should have just held out a bit longer-"

"Held out? While she was dating that stupid Ravenclaw snot?" asked James, his expression incredulous. "If I didn't act then, they would have spent _the whole summer_ together!"

"Yeah Mooney!" Sirius cut in. "Don't you realize if Prongs didn't interfere and send the git to the hospital wing, by now Evans would have been bored to an early grave. The matter was urgent. It was life or death."

Peter was in the middle of a sip, tried to laugh, and began choking.

But all James said as Remus thumped their friend on the back was "This is our last year here together. After it's over, I might never see her again. I'm not wasting time trying to pretend I don't care, because this is a question of now or never."

All five glasses on the table were soon empty, and as the Marauders searched through their pockets for Sickles, I excused myself to go use the loo.

Business in there went just as usual, until I saw someone standing behind me as I began washing my hands in the sink. She was looking at me a bit strange, and my first thought was maybe it was just my barely hidden baldness and the ridiculous hat. She was probably just waiting to use the loo.

But then I realized,_ there are free stalls_. And the next thing I realized was that there was a wand poking hard in between my shoulderblades.

"Turn around slowly." she said. Her voice was soft, but something in the intonation frightened me none-the-less. I did as I was told until I was face-to-face with the witch, and her wand. She kept it pointed at my chest.

She was middle-aged, blonde, a bit plump, at least a foot shorter than me. I had glanced all this in the mirror, but thought that perhaps my eyes just mislead me. I became very confused as to what this entirely non-threatening-looking lady might want from me, and perhaps that's why I hesitated to snatch out my wand. My hand remained tense, mere inches from my pocket. I felt the sink pressing against my lower back.

"I want you to give me your wallet. All the money you have. Scream, and I'll blast your pretty little head off."

I went from confused to shocked. She wanted to mug me? Her? She looked like the farthest thing from a criminal.

"Go on. Give it here." she spoke again.

The woman's eyes were frightening; they seemed to be hiding something.

Something clicked in my brain. This was not a situation to be questioning things.

I whipped out my wand, a stunning incantation half-way out of my mouth before it was even in sight. The witch was pushed back from me with the force of the spell, but she had been quick enough to stop it from hitting her in the chest.

And then she shot a curse of her own. Something that shattered the mirror behind me a millisecond after I dodged. If there had been room for terror in my body, it would have petrified me. Instead, there was only adrenaline.

I aimed at the ceiling next. If I could get it to cave in on her-

The falling pieces of plaster bounced off of her shield charm. But the dust forced her to cough, to move away towards the stalls.

I dashed towards the door. It was locked.

I thought of _alohamora_, but the dust had settled and there was no time anymore.

I deflected her spell of blue particles, but they ricocheted off the walls and the door. They hit me all over my body, leaving tiny cuts before disappearing. They didn't stop flying until they found flesh.

Desperate now, I realized I must be facing black magic. I shot another spell, this time sending ropes whipping towards her. They were incinerated mid-way through flight.

I thought I saw her smile, but no, I must have imagined that.

I screamed out another stunner so loud it made my throat hurt. But that was fruitless, I realized as soon as I'd done it. If she'd thought ahead enough to lock the door, there would also be silencing charms.

I double Double-casted. A Dissolving Charm, to weaken her shield. A Fire Blast.

As soon as I sent off the spells, I ducked and crawled past the debris to find shelter behind the stalls.

I allowed myself a short feeling of triumph at the sound of her shriek. It told me that something had got her, even if it was just that the stalls next to her were aflame.

All was quiet for a second, until I heard something moving. Not footsteps. Like something was being dragged along the ground, coming closer.

And the next thing I knew I was facing a snake. Huge.

"_EXPULSO!_" I screamed, just as it moved to strike at me with finger-sized fangs. The Explosive Spell was the first thing that came to mind, though it obviously wasn't ideal because it splattered me in tiny, sizzling snake bits.

Now it was quiet, except for the sound of the dripping faucet I never got to close all the way. I hadn't noticed it until then.

Cautiously, wand aloft, I glanced around to where she'd been standing. She was gone.

Slowly, I got up, my eyes peeled in case she was just hiding. I walked backwards towards the door, careful not to trip on bits of ceiling. I cast the charm to unlock it without turning around. I opened it and backed up until I could slam it shut to block out the view.

The boys were at the bar, with two bags full of alcohol for the party, chatting to Rosmerta.

Peter saw me first, and his jaw dropped open and his eyes widened in fear. He nudged James, who began, "_Final.._" The word died in his throat once he turned around.

Rosmerta shrieked.

Not only was I covered in slimy, red and brown snake bits, but looking down at my arms I realized the dozens of tiny cuts all over me were bleeding. I felt a trickle down my face. But I still felt mostly numb to the pain.

"Got attacked." I said to the five of them. And then to Rosmerta. "The ceiling in there, by the way.. you're gonna have to get it fixed. Sorry about that."

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><p><strong>AN: Myrtle got killed by a basilisk, Hermione got attacked by a troll, Katie Bell got imperioused. Dammit, Lily Luna, you should know not to go to the bathroom alone as a girl in the HP universe! Lol.**

**Please review! It makes me worry if there're lots of views but no one says anything :(**


	25. The Welcome Party

**A/N: I've been so excited for this chapter that I finished it already! Thanks so much to my readers, especially those of you who've reviewed :D Hope you guys enjoy. This is the first time there are drunk people in this fanfic, and I hope I did the effects of alcohol justice, lol.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 25: The Welcome Party<strong>

"Are you sure you'll be fine dear?" Rosmerta asked me after pouring my second free drink that day, this time something thankfully stronger than butterbeer.

I took a swig before reassuring her. "Yeah, I bet this looks a lot worse than it is, really. Most of this isn't even my blood." A hint of questioning appeared on the faces of the still rather slack-jawed Marauders. "I exploded a snake." I explained.

Remus was the first to collect his senses enough to ask "Is your attacker still in there?"

"I think she's gone." I told them. "Disapparated, probably. I didn't check."

"It was a woman?" James asked.

"Yeah. And she didn't look very threatening either. Short, middle-aged, blonde. Pretty much the last witch in the bar I expected would try and mug me." I told them, finally relaxing as I started feeling the effects of the sherry. "And the spell that she used to make all these cuts.. I think it might've been Dark magic."

"Was she wearing yellow and purple robes?" Peter asked, bug-eyed.

"Yeah.." I recalled. "Yeah, I think so."

"She sat at the table right next to ours!" he continued. "You didn't see her, Luna, because she was right behind you."

Apprehension slithered into my mind once again. If she sat behind me, she would have heard everything I had said. She would know my new name, and the things I'd said about my family…

If it _were_ just a mugging, I doubt she would care. But something told me that asking me for my money was just a facade on her part. First of all, I didn't look like I had much of that, in my slightly worn school robes and silly, knit hat. I wasn't wearing jewelry. I didn't even have my bag with me! And second of all, if she wanted to search through my pockets it would have been as easy as knocking me out with a stunner before I even suspected a thing. No, she wanted to _fight_.

I scratched at the remainders of nail polish I had left on my fingernails. A nervous habit.

"She came in here right after you five." I realized Rosmerta was speaking. "Ordered some of our best wine, and barely said two words to me! She was a reading a novel, I think. I'd never seen her before."

Suddenly, something changed. The bits of snake, the slime and the blood that had been covering my front, disappeared.

"Looks like the snake was summoned." I pointed out, drawing the only logical conclusion. Summoned creatures vanished after a certain amount of time, depending on how powerful the spell that created them was. This one lasted longer than average.

"You still look a bit worse for wear." James was concerned.

"If those cuts aren't too deep, I know a few healing spells that might help." Remus offered.

The spells didn't work very well. Clearly the curse that caused the damage had something in it to counteract healing magic. However, I was pretty grateful for the pain-relief charms Remus tried next. The wounds had been stinging like papercuts.

Madam Rosmerta went to examine the bathroom along with Sirius and Peter, who volunteered to make sure it was safe. I downed the rest of my goblet while waiting for them.

I wanted to share my concern about the real reason for the the attack with the boys, but knew that that might not be a great idea. What if it had something to do with my true identity? What if someone knew or suspected something? I couldn't risk involving the Marauders in that, so I sat in uncharacteristic silence.

"You're still up for celebrating tonight, right?" The look on my face must have worried James.

I decided to push away thoughts of the blonde, middle-aged witch until later. I wasn't prepared to ruin everyone's night over this. So I smiled and replied to him, "Of course! I wouldn't let some old hag get in the way of our party."

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><p>It was about an hour later that I finally got back to the girls' dormitory. Lily, Emma, Mary, and Dorcas were in there, and when I came in they all stopped what they were doing and stared.<p>

"Merlin's Beard, Luna! Where is he and how badly do we need to kick his arse?" exclaimed Emma, jumping up from her four-poster bed.

"Knowing Luna, he's probably in the hospital wing already." Mary said, before going back to filing her nails.

"I thought you two made a pact!" Lily was indignant.

"It wasn't Sirius." While I was grateful for the girls' anger on my behalf, I didn't want the four of them drawing the wrong conclusions about what happened. "I got attacked by some witch after I used the loo. She wanted my money."

"She did that?" asked Lily, referring to the cuts on my face.

"We got into a bit of a scuffle." I said wryly.

"I hope you caught her, at least?" Dorcas asked. "Did you contact the Ministry?"

"No, she Disapparated. Guess I was putting up too much of a fight." I shrugged. "At least I got to keep all my Galleons."

After assuring the girls that I was perfectly fine, I went to take a hot shower. It was past 7 and I had less than an hour to prepare and make myself look presentable.

Seeing my face in the mirror, I saw that I looked worse than I'd thought. There was one cut on my temple, one on my cheek, one across most of my chin. And those were only the ones on my face. Just that morning I'd thought I couldn't look any more ridiculous.

But on the bright side, I was pleased to see as I took off my hat, my hair was already growing back. It was just short of two inches, no where near as long as it used to be, but it was better than being entirely bald. I decided I wouldn't even need the hat for the party. Although, the hairstyle did stick out and emphasize my features in a way that reminded me of James. But it wasn't so much that I couldn't just chalk it up to coincidence if anyone asked.

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><p>The first thing I saw when I descend the stairs to the common room was a large banner hanging over the fireplace reading "Welcome to Hogwarts, Luna!" There were also two tables that weren't part of the common room's usual furniture, one which held the drinks we'd gotten in Hogsmeade, and one with a variety of snacks most likely brought up from the kitchens. A music player in the corner was playing songs by the Kneazles, a band that I remembered was popular in the 70s.<p>

"Finally, the guest of honor!" bellowed James above the sounds of music and chatter of students who were already drinking, snacking, and socializing. It took me a second to recognize him from afar though, because his very characteristic hair was covered by what looked like a flaming shower cap.

He made his way to where the rest of the girls and I stood at the bottom of the stairs. "For you." With a wink, he handed me a bottle of Knotgrass Mead which he grabbed on the way over.

"Thanks." I replied with a grin, partially because I was excited to be at the party, and partially because the thing on his head looked bloody ridiculous. "Let me guess, that stupid shower cap you're wearing has something to do with Black?"

"Yeah, Padfoot's got a whole bunch of them." James confirmed, pointing over to where Sirius was. Indeed, there was a box on the windowsill next to him with flames coming out of it. "He's passing them out to anyone who's willing to wear them."

"The git won't give a rest, will he?" Lily rolled her eyes. "This is supposed to be in Luna's _honor_."

"It's alright, Lily. I don't really mind." I tried to placate her. "I think it's amusing, really."

"Amusing?" She didn't seem to really believe me. "He's making fun of you!"

"No one can make fun of me without my permission." I assured her, screwing the cap off my mead and taking a drink.

"You're looking dashing tonight, Evans." It didn't take long for James' attention to switch onto Lily. "You should wear outfits like that more often." He was referring to the tight, dark violet dress Lily had chosen, which reached half-way down her thighs and had loose, lacy sleeves.

"First of all, Potter, I can't wear outfits like this more often because if you haven't noticed we have a school uniform. And second of all, ew. Don't look at me like that." She gave him a scowl. "I'm going to go grab a drink." she said before walking off.

The rest of the girls had also left to go talk or get food, and James and I were left standing alone.

Noticing the look on his face I thought he could use some encouragement. "Don't worry, she'll come around." I said.

"Yeah, I sure hope so." he said, before his expression changed back to happy. "Come on, I'll introduce you to some of our fifth and sixth years. All but two members of my Quidditch team are here. I told them you were a bloody _amazing_ Keeper and they want to meet you."

About an hour or two into the festivities, I had finished my bottle of mead along with three shots of firewhiskey, I had had many laughs chatting about Quidditch, Professors, and the latest Hogwarts gossip with everyone present, and I had consumed at least five Pumpkin Pasties, a handful of cheese fritters, and a dozen stuffed mushroom appetizers (the boys and I _had_ missed dinner).

At that point in the evening, I thought it might be appropriate to go say hello to Sirius and examine his box of fire.

"Like my Firehead Hats? I made 'em in your honor." he said when I approached him, as thought to suggest he was paying me a compliment.

"Padfoot!" I said, surprising him not only with my extreme cheer but also by the use of his nickname. "You shouldn't have! That's SO. Fricken. _Sweet_." I snatched one from the box without invitation and pulled it over my head. "Oi!" I grabbed Andrew Bones by the elbow, a nearby sixth year to whom James had given a camera and assigned the duty of documenting the event. "Take a photo of me and Pads, yeah?"

I grinned as widely as possible and draped an arm around Sirius' neck. Then I pointed dramatically to our hats.

"Got it!" laughed Andrew.

I let go of Sirius and gave him a pat on the arm. "Thanks mate. See you around." Before leaving to grab a few more cheese fritters.

I may have been slightly too intoxicated for that encounter, but days later when I saw the photo, it was all worth it. No regrets.

Not long afterward, I found myself talking to Lily. When I found her, she was holding a cup of a fruity beverage picked out by Peter, which I remember the boys had decided to spike with some rum.

"Luna," she said to me, her words a bit slurred, "I've been thinking. You're bloody right. I need to relax a little. This-" she waved her drink in the air almost spilling some- "is fun. I'm so bloody glad we're having this party for you. Welcome to bloody Hogwarts."

I laughed. "Thanks."

She continued as though she hadn't heard me. "It's so good to have fun again. You know what I spent the afternoon doing? Paperwork. And after I finished the paperwork, I did my schoolwork. I'm weeks ahead on assignments! I'm the most boring bloody Head Girl in the history of this school."

"Er, I doubt that, Lily." I told her with honesty. "I imagine one would have to be pretty damn boring to be the most boring Head student in history. I mean, do you realize what kind of people you're comparing yourself to?"

"No, don't try to make me feel better." she said, shaking her head. "The only thing that will make me feel better is having fun again. What I've been doing, that isn't _me_. Ever since I got that stupid badge I've been trying to compensate for Potter's lack of discipline by doing everything right myself. But _sod it_. Bloody sod it. I'm done. I can't be arsed with _paperwork_ anymore."

I laughed again, and Lily took another sip of her drink. "Fair enough. Bugger paperwork, Lils. Have fun."

Then Lily leaned in closer. "I'm accepting your offer." She whispered to me, in a rather loud, drunken way. "I shall help you take away Sirius Black's manhood. I'd be bloody _more than glad _to help."

I hugged her, waves of affection washing over me. My grandma was awesome. "I knew you'd agree." I said, holding her close.

It was almost two and most of the fifth and sixth years had gone to bed when I felt my own energy dwindling down. The charm on Sirius' Firehead Hats had also worn off, so the now boring shower caps were strewn about the room.

I was sitting on one of the coveted couch seats between Remus and James when Lily passed by. James, clearly tipsy, offered her a place on his lap, but despite also not being sober, Lily refused.

"Piss off, Potter." And then slightly more under her breath, in that same drunken whisper, "Annoying bloody git."

I thought that was a little extreme for the circumstances, but Remus whispered an explanation to me. "Going to school with Lily for seven years, I've learned that you can generally gauge how much she's had to drink by what percentage of her sentences turn out to be swearing."

It was about five minutes later that James asked if anyone else wanted more Pumpkin Pasties and stood up to go get some. But then he froze.

"Prongs?" Remus asked him, before he, Sirius, Peter, and I turned our heads to follow James' gaze.

And what we saw was Lily, right next to the pasties. She was propped up on a windowsill with her one of her legs hiked up around Andrew Bones' waist, her arms wrapped around his neck, her hands in his brown, wavy hair. We couldn't see either of their faces, but we didn't have to. It was clear what was going on due to the silence between them and the way that their heads moved.

"Prongs, she's just drunk. Just ignore them." said Peter.

James finally moved his eyes away from the sight. His expression was scary, but not because he looked angry or sad. I wasn't actually sure what he looked like. His jaw muscles were tight, and his eyelids were low in a deadened, half-awake sort of way. I wasn't sure what to expect. He still didn't sit back down.

"Want me to go punch that fucking arsehole's face in?" asked Sirius, still looking on at the spectacle in disgust. "I also wouldn't mind giving Evans a piece of my mind."

"No, I don't want that." said James. "Give me a cigarette, would you, Padfoot? It's time for a smoking break."

"Prongs, you don't smoke." Remus said quietly.

"Bugger that." answered James, suddenly angry.

Sirius produced a cigarette out of one of his robe pockets, and passed it to James.

"Right. I'm going to go for some fresh air."

Fresh air didn't really seem to be what James wanted, considering he just asked for a smoke, but none of us commented.

Sirius stood up. "I'll go with you."

James shrugged. "Fine."

"Can I come-?" I started asking, but James interrupted.

"I don't want company."

I really wanted to make sure James was ok, but even in my less-than-sober state I realized that Sirius was the only exception he'd make. And anyways, I had no idea what I would say. Would James want to hear excuses for Lily's behavior? Probably not. And excuses were the only things going through my mind at the moment.

Once the two boys exited through the portrait hole, only Remus, Peter, me, Lily and Bones, plus five other people were left in the common room. The five lowerclassmen were all gaping or giggling at the sight of their Head Girl and her over-exposed thigh.

"I'm going to bed." Peter declared.

"I'll stay to clean up." Remus said warily.

I suddenly felt really bad not just for James, but for Lily, seeing the way the others were looking at her. She was making a silly mistake all because she had drank way too much.

"I don't think we should let this keep happening." I told Remus. "Lily's not in a state for this. She doesn't know what she's doing."

And so I walked over to where the couple was still snogging, now even more enthusiastically. I tapped Bones on the shoulder, but didn't get a response.

"Oi! Bloody hell, you two! Stop it!" When I began to practically pull him away from her, Lily finally noticed me.

"Luna?" she asked, clearly dazed. "This bloke- he's a good snogger. I recommend."

Andrew smiled at me, his eyes also slightly glazed over.

"Well I think that's enough snogging for you." I told Lily, trying to sound firm. "We're going to bed."

Lily leaned on me as we walked up the stairs. I could tell she was royally messed up.

"Do you think you might need to puke?" I asked her when we made it to the 7th year dormitory door.

"Maybe." she said, her head hanging a bit.

I ended up placing her on her four-poster, lying sideways in case she upchucked. I put a rubbish bin next to her bed, for good measure.

Exhausted, I finally made it to my own bed. I still had enough sense in me to take off the blouse and blue skirt that I had borrowed from Lily. And before I fell completely asleep, I took the Marauders' Map out of my bedside table drawer, and checked up on James and Sirius. I expected to find them on the Astronomy Tower, but they weren't there. I searched through a couple more floors before giving up. I would have been worried, but I suppose I found solace in the fact that James wasn't alone.

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><p><strong>AN: Please review!**


	26. Hangovers and Rumors

**A/N: Hi guys! So I know it's been EONS since I updated this story. One reason is that I'd been trying to write a longer chapter, but obviously that wasn't the best idea since it just lead to me being demotivated. But after these long months I've been browsing this site again, and decided to just post whatever I have so far (because even though no one has said anything, people are still viewing! I would hate to disappoint with a permanent cliffhanger). I guess I have to accept that sometimes it's better to post anything at all than to take forever trying to make it perfect.**

**So, here's a SUMMARY in case you don't remember everything and don't want to go back and re-read (though I suggest doing that if you really don't want to miss anything because there have been some kinda subtle things that will be important later): **

**The night before was the Welcome Party for Lily Luna. People got really drunk. Lily kissed a bloke named Andrew Bones, witnessed by the Marauders and some other students. James walked out.**

**Lily Luna still has that book in which she found the time-traveling key, but she can't read it very well. Also, she got attacked by a witch in the bathroom when she went to Hogsmeade with the boys.**

**And, of course, the prank war between her and Sirius is still on because he burned off her hair.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 26: Hangovers and Rumors<strong>

I woke up rather early the next morning to the sounds of Lily vomiting in the rubbish bin I had placed near her bed.

"Hey," I called, still groggy but fully awake. "You alright, Lils?"

"No." came the reply before more sounds of vomiting, and then a loud groan. "Why did I do this to myself?"

"It happens." I said sympathetically and got out of bed even though the clock said 6:18 and it was a Saturday. My mouth felt like I'd been sucking on cotton, so the first thing I did after throwing off the covers was conjure myself some water.

Then I walked over to Lily and refilled the glass. As she downed it in several gulps, I vanished the contents of the bin next to her before it could stink up the whole room.

"You gonna be ok?" I asked her as she handed the cup back.

"Yeah, I think so." said Lily with a grimace, not opening her eyes. "I've got the worst headache."

"Got any Hangover Potions?" I asked. I knew from experience how much those helped.

"No." Lily moaned.

"Any of the other girls?" They were all still asleep.

"Don't think so." Lily managed to mumble. "Potter though.. He said he had some prepared."

I decided that waking the Marauders up ahead of time would be worth it if it would help Lily not be sick again. Plus I wasn't feeling at my best either. And even though I wasn't sure how much Emma, Mary, and Dorcas had drank, Hangover Potions seemed like the thing to have that particular morning.

So a few minutes later I knocked on the boys' door, even though it was barely past six o'clock in the morning. I knew better than to try the doorknob myself this time.

"Prongs, why- Oh." Remus was the one to answer my knock, his voice a harsh whisper. His expression changed when he realized who it was and he tightened his robe. "Luna. Is anything wrong?"

"Yeah, sorry it's early, but Lily's not feeling well." I explained. "She said James had some Hangover Potion prepared?"

"Right." Remus said, nodding. "We've got a whole stash somewhere."

He began to search through some bedside drawers. The four poster beside them was unoccupied, the bed perfectly made, and I felt worried again because James obviously hadn't spent the night in the dorms.

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to enter at first, but seeing as how Remus left the door open in front of me, I decided I would.

I let my eyes wander over to one of the windows that let in cool, steely glow of early morning. There was a tower of Zonko's boxes piled on the sill, topped off with a stack of Quidditch magazines.

I glanced over at the occupied beds. Peter lay tucked in and sleeping, only his hair showing above the mound of warm blankets. Sirius also lay on his bed, but on top of the covers and still entirely dressed, his limbs all stretched out and snoring a little.

"Found them." Remus finally straightened up and brought me several small phials of milky-looking liquid.

"Thanks." I said, and walked back toward the door. But before he closed it behind me I remembered my concern and asked, "Do you have any idea where James is? I thought Sirius was with him last night?"

"He went on a run." Remus said with just a moment's hesitation.

I raised my eyebrows. "At six in the morning?"

"He's an early riser."

My expression of skepticism remained. Did he think I was stupid? "Look, I know this has something to do with last night and Lily. Is he taking it badly?"

Remus looked slightly uncomfortable. "He's fine. More or less. You don't have to worry about him."

"I just don't want him to do anything stupid." Knowing that what had happened only happened because of _my_ welcome party, I hadn't been able to completely relax since the moment James left the common room. _Because if he does anything stupid, it'll all be different. I would have changed everything… _"Did you at least see him today? After the party?" I needed to know.

"He was here when we all went to sleep." At least that was a small comfort.

Remus paused, and looked at me thoughtfully. "Luna, James can take care of himself. If you're still worried later, you can talk to him today during lunch. You should know he'll probably sleeping through breakfast if he was up the whole night."

I nodded, only a bit reassured. I wasn't usually one to be so anxious or worried. But that was before I had the power to turn the war in favor of Voldemort with an accidental wrong move, with a simple slip of the tongue.

When I finally brought her the potion, Lily downed a whole phial in one go.

"Thank Merlin for that stuff." she mumbled. "I'm still nauseous but at least the feeling of having a troll sitting on top of my head is all gone."

She settling back into her pillows, closing her eyes. It seemed like she might go back to sleep. I, however, was wide awake and had no intentions of waiting several hours for everyone else to wake up. I was too restless for that.

"Any recollections of last night?" I asked her, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

"Uh.." she breathed, and then her eyes flashed open and a look of resigned embarrassment dawned on her face. "Oh Merlin. I snogged Andrew Bones, didn't I?"

"Yep." I nodded, a bit relieved I wouldn't have to explain it to her.

Her hand rubbed at her eyes and there was a slight strain in her voice when she asked "You know? Merlin. You saw that?"

"Well you two weren't exactly discreet about it. The common room isn't the most private of places to snog."

"Oh bloody hell." she said quietly, taking her hand away from her face but still frowning. "So stupid. So bloody stupid. I've never done that before. I can count the number of blokes I've ever kissed on one hand, and that's including that one time in primary school…

"I just had this whole epiphany yesterday about how I was trying too hard to be a perfect Head Girl, and the pressure was getting to me. I only wanted to be me and have fun for once! Ugh, but I drank way too much! Overcompensated, I guess."

"Yeah, you could say that." I agreed.

Lily bit her lip. "At least Bones isn't a bad bloke or anything. I think he actually flirted with me a few times in the prefect meetings. I was never exactly interested, but he's got those cute dimples, you know? I think that's what did me in yesterday. I've got some vague memories…" she finally trailed off.

"Did you snog him on purpose, then?" I was still a little upset on James' behalf but trying to be sympathetic. It wouldn't be that bad if she didn't know he had been present, I decided.

"I don't know who made the first move if that's what you're asking."

"I mean do you regret snogging him?" I clarified. "A bunch of sixth years saw you, you know? And the Marauders were still down there as well."

"Really?" Lily looked embarrassed again. "Obviously I would have preferred it if I had had enough sense to not to do it in front of people… Bloody hell. How did I even get that drunk?"

"James saw." I decided not to dance around the bush any longer. "It upset him, you know?"

"Oh I didn't even think of that!" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes in agitation. "He's going to be even more of a nightmare to deal with than usual, won't he?"

I bit my lip, disappointed. Was that what she was worried about? That James was going to give her a hard time? Didn't she care about he must feel? If only she'd known what he looked like last night, when he noticed them. Maybe then her ignorance of the fact that James actually had feelings, and that he actually liked her, would have taken a nice blow.

"Anyway, forget about Potter." Lily was talking again. "The real question is how am I supposed to face Andrew? We've got a prefect meeting this Friday. I can't just avoid him - oh, that's going to be _so_ awkward."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." I said a bit flatly. "What more explanation do you need other than how drunk you were? It's not like he's going to judge you. He's in the same boat."

Lily chewed on her lip. "I think he might actually like me."

"What!?" I asked a bit too loudly, staring at her with renewed concern.

A muffled "Oi! Shuddup. Some of us are still sleeping." came from Emma's bed.

"Well he's just been really friendly, you know?" Lily told me, her voice lowered. "At the meetings, and whenever we've come across in the common room. I thought maybe that's just how he was, but last night, he said things that make me think otherwise."

"Are you interested?" I asked pointedly, still a bit shocked, but praying for a no.

"I don't know." she said thoughtfully, clearly considering it. "I haven't dated anyone since Patrick last year, and Mary's right, he was dull as a Flobberworm. It would be nice to go on a date, maybe."

_If you want a date, why don't you go out with James?_ I screamed inside my head. But I kept my mouth shut since that last thing I needed was for Lily to get upset with me now.

"I'm going out for a fly." I said suddenly, standing up.

"Er, ok." Lily said, a tad taken aback by my abrupt movement, but still shifting to curl up better into her sheets.

When I returned to the girls' dormitory I felt a bit more clear-headed than when I left. But I was disappointed to find that flying had only lifted the weight off my shoulders temporarily. When I landed back on the ground all my worried came flooding back to me. Worries about never seeing my old friends again; about possibly having lost mum, dad, and my brothers forever; about pretending to be someone else and keeping my true identity safe; about dealing with the responsibility of making sure history stayed on the right track; about that strange middle-aged blonde witch, and why she wanted to flight me; about Lily and that dumb Bones bloke; about how James was handling the events of last night; and lastly, about all the bloody homework I had to do on the weekend.

When I entered the room, I noticed Lily was the only one sleeping now, and the rest of the girls were up and getting ready for breakfast.

"There you are! We were wondering where you'd pranced off to." Mary greeted me as she charmed her long, dirty blonde hair into a French braid. "Did you even sleep at all? You stayed up even later than me, if I remember correctly. You know how to party, I'll give you that. Unlike this whole bunch."

"Seems Lily stayed up late as well." Dorcas said. "We should probably wake her or else she'll miss breakfast."

"She and I came up at the same time." I informed the girls. "After I pried her away from the clutches of that sixth year who'd been taking the photographs."

"Are you serious?" Mary almost dropped her wand, and her bright pink lips formed the shape of an O.

"Are you saying something happened between Lily and Andrew Bones?" Emma looked not quite as scandalized as Mary, but still rather surprised.

"Yeah, if by something you mean a full-out snog session." I replied. "Ask her yourself." I jerked my thumb in Lily's direction, where the girl in question was mumbling out protests as Drocas tried to gently shake her awake. "I need to shower."

I came out some ten minutes later, drying my now almost chin-length hair.

"-I don't remember, Mary, stop asking me that!" Lily, still barely out of bed, was surrounded by the other three girls.

"A decent kisser then." Mary nodded, a certain finality in her tone. "You would have remembered if it were bad."

"What about you, Luna?" Emma asked me. "Have an interesting night?"

"It was fun." I replied from my own bed where I was pulling on socks. "Didn't snog anyone though, so Lily wins out in that regard."

"Well I'm glad you did what you did, Lils." Mary said solemnly. "If you hadn't, the most interesting night award would have gone to Dorcas." She winked at her friend in a ridiculously exaggerated manner.

"I? -what?" the slightest blush appeared on Dorcas' cheeks. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I _saw_ you talking to Remus yesterday! _Finally_ you're interested in someone! I thought you'd be single forever with the way you clam up around boys."

"Oh, that- it wasn't like that!" said Dorcas in her small, girly voice as the blush spread all over her face. "He'd lent me a book. I was just returning it! Remus is a nice guy, but there's nothing like _that_ between us!"

"_If you say so_." Mary said in a sing-song voice.

"Oh honestly, Mary." Emma looked up from trimming her nails, only mildly interested in the conversation. "Stop trying to embarrass her. Unlike you, most people are capable of being friendly towards the opposite sex without wanting anything romantic out of it. And anyway, how does that qualify as most interesting in your books when you spent the entire night flirting with Jacob Hanson?"

"By most interesting I meant out of the norm, obviously." Mary said.

Lily, who had started getting dressed now that she was no longer the center of attention, chimed in as she buttoned up her robes, "Hanson? Isn't he a fourth year?"

"He's fifteen!" Mary quickly exclaimed, as though she had stressed this many times in her mind. "I'm seventeen. It's not_ that_ weird. And he looks old for a fourth year, anyway!"

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As Remus had predicted, James was no where to be seen during breakfast.

"You're awfully quiet this morning, Luna." Emma observed as I began to butter my muffin.

"Just tired." I shrugged. "Woke up way too early." Though of course I was mostly worried about James. At least, from what I could tell, the rest of the Marauders seemed happy enough. Remus and Peter were chatting about something as Sirius stole biscuits off of the later's plate. _If something happened to James they would look more upset_, I consoled myself.

"Why do you keep looking over there?" Lily asked, following my gaze. "Oh, strange, Potter's not with his friends. Ugh, I hope this doesn't mean we should be expecting the pumpkin juice to turn us all into toads, or something of that sort. It's too early in the morning for me to deal with Potter and his nonsense. That hangover potion only helped so much."

"He's not pulling a prank." I said a bit harshly.

"And how do you know that?" Emma asked, raising an eyebrow at me. "Are the Marauders letting you in on their secrets now? You've been gradually cozying up to them, I've noticed."

"James was there last night to witness the spectacle." I replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. "It upset him a bit, as you can imagine."

"You mean he saw what happened with Lily?" asked Dorcas. "Is he alright?"

"I haven't actually seen him since." I shrugged, trying not to make a big deal of things. I looked at Lily to gage her reaction. "He just left when he saw you. Said something about having a smoke, and wouldn't let anyone other than Sirius come with him."

"Potter smokes?" Lily asked, entirely missing the point. "Ugh, just another thing to add to his list of disgusting habits, I guess."

"He doesn't smoke!" I exclaimed rather hotly, my voice becoming high-pitched. _Honestly though_, she had _no_ bloody idea, did she? She had _no _idea who James really was, or what he was going through! How could she be so clueless? She was completely missing the point! Talking to her about James felt like hitting my head against a brick wall.

The girls were staring at me, and it seemed like they were about to question me about the cause of my outburst, but then we were all distracted by a group of rather loud Slytherins walking by.

"Oi, Head Girl!" one of them called out. "Had fun last night, did you?"

"A Mudblood and a slag. Colorful personality you've got there, Evans!" A second one exclaimed with a grin. It caused the whole group to guffaw. I thought they sounded like a bunch of mentally challenged baboons.

"Wow.." Mary stared at the lot as they walked away. "What a bunch of complete ARSEBAGS!" she exclaimed the last word loudly enough so that the retreating Slytherins must have heard, but they didn't react to it.

"Not worth our time or attention." shrugged Emma, before continuing on with her breakfast.

Lily also continued to eat, but her face had a forced, stoic look to it.

"You know they're a bunch of idiots, don't you, Lils?" Dorcas said, looking slightly concerned.

"Yeah." Lily replied, stabbing at her eggs with a fork, and tone of voice giving away her attempt to control her annoyance. "I should have expected this, honestly."

"I'm surprised the news got around so damn quickly." Emma said. "As you can see, Luna, Hogwarts has no shortage in gossiping idiots."

But those weren't the only taunts Lily had to face during breakfast that day, and they weren't only on the part of the Slytherins.

"You should give the lot of them detention." Emma's face was full of distaste as a couple boys from the Hufflepuff made lewd kissing faces at us.

"First of all, I won't dignify their idiocy with a response." Lily replied as she ignored them pointedly, instead taking out her anger on a pork banger, which looked increasingly more like minced meat. "Secondly, I've got to write a report for every detention I give. I'm not going to drown myself in paperwork over this lot."

"It's unfair that they're going unpunished." Mary muttered as she shook her head, giving the Hufflepuffs an impressively disdainful look.

"So Lily." I decided that she could use a distraction, and I'd just remembered what we had talked about the previous night. "Are you still in on my plan to rob Sirius of his masculinity?"

"Oh, yes, of course." She seemed slightly cheered. "I'm guessing what you want is a Gender Swap potion. It makes the drinker transform into the opposite sex."

"Perfect." I grin. "How long does it last and when can we have it ready?"

"It lasts anywhere from a few minutes to several weeks. Depending on how much the drinker intakes. And luckily for us, I already have the base for transfiguration potions in stock. Cuts down weeks of preparation time. We can have it ready in a day or two."

"Awesome!" I say, mood temporarily lifted. I cast a glance down the table at Sirius. He had no idea what was in store for him. Of course a couple days was still too long a time to wait for retaliation over burning off all my hair. Which is why it was great remembering that I did, indeed, have something else planned for him.

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><p><strong>AN: ****Let me know what you think or if you want to read more! Any comment is appreciated :)**


	27. More Rumors

**A/N: Thank you random guest person for the comment! And thank you Jilly98 for the fave! You really helped motivate me to keep writing this. I would dedicate this chapter to you guys...but I don't know if you'd want that cuz it's not a very happy chapter, as you will see. But thanks so much for reading :D**

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><p><strong>Chapter 27: More Rumors<strong>

Lily and I spent the hours after breakfast working on the potion. Everything was going great, and it seemed that Lily really knew what she was doing. Despite of everything that people had said to her that morning, she seemed to focus well on the task.

I was in a rather better mood too, because a quick check of the Marauder's Map showed me that James was, as Remus had predicted, asleep in his dormitory.

Plus I kept imagining Sirius's face once I manage to slip him some of the Gender Switch Potion… It was a very uplifting thought.

"Do you think there's a way to make sure he finds himself in his womanly time of the month when he takes it?" I proposed the idea to Lily as I mashed up some mandrake leaves.

"You," she shook her head, but still smiled a little, "have an evil mind. I daresay even brilliantly evil."

I shrugged innocently. "Just want him to have the full experience. I don't do things half-arsed."

When it was almost time to go eat again, I checked the Map, hiding it behind the pages of my potions book so Lily couldn't see. The boys' dorm was empty. This meant, of course, that I would finally get to talk to James. But before that, there was something else that I'd been wanting to do.

"Perfect." Lily said as she gave the murky purple-ish liquid a stir. "Looks just like it's supposed to. Ready for a lunch break?"

"Yeah, you go down without me though. I'll catch up." I replied. "I've got to, er, reapply some hair-growing salve."

Left alone in the dormitory, I pulled the out Map to examine it closer. Seeing that James was descending the staircase on the fourth floor, and the other three Marauders were already eating, I was reassured that the coast was clear. It was time for action.

Of course I knew that the same tactic I'd used to infiltrate their dorm the first time wouldn't work. They left their door too well-guarded. But from what I'd seen that morning, the window was a weak spot in their security. All I had to do was find a way to navigate around Gryffindor Tower to the half that faced west- to the window with the stack of Zonko's boxes.

My first thought was using a broom, but the problem was I didn't have one on hand. I decided to give the Summoning Charm a try. After all, it worked with Dad's broomstick in the Triwizard Tournament.

Prying open the window proved difficult. It was probably years since the locking mechanism was touched as it was windy this high up, and usually cold. But after a good Oiling Charm, the thing finally gave and flung open, letting in a gust of cool air.

"_Accio Cleansweep_." I said, picturing the broom I'd been riding that morning. I couldn't remember if I'd locked the shed or not after returning it, but kept my fingers crossed that I hadn't bothered.

Sure enough, barely a minute later I spotted the broom zooming over towards me.

Before leaving the 7th year Gryffindor girls' dorm, I made sure to take the small phial I'd obtained from Snape in Potions that Thursday.

It didn't take long for me to find the right window and _alohamora_ my way in. Not wanting to be missed down in the Great Hall, I got straight to the point. Kneeling next to the bed in which I'd witnessed Sirius sleep on that morning, I uncorked the tiny bottle of cat pee, and let just one drop fall onto the rug. I wanted it to be subtle.

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When I walked into the Great Hall ten minutes later, it became quickly apparent that the girls were not in a good mood as I was. Dorcas was staring down at her plate, while Emma and Mary both looked a bit angry. Lily, I noticed, wasn't with them, but a quick glance down the table revealed that she was sitting next to Andrew Bones.

At first I was afraid for the worst- that she was actually thinking of _dating_ the bloke. But the intensity of her frown as she talked to him told me something else was probably going on.

Instinctively, I also looked to see how James was taking everything, but was surprised when I noticed the others were still eating without him. Where could he be? Did he decide to go back to the dorms? I was worried again, but pushed the those particular thoughts away for the moment.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I lowered myself onto the bench next to Dorcas. "Why's Lily sitting with _him_?" I nudged my head in Bones's direction.

"You won't _believe_ what some Ravenclaw sod in the Entrance Hall dared to imply." Mary said venomously.

"I wouldn't call it an implication, Mary." Emma said darkly. "He outright said our Head Girl shagged a student in front of the whole Gryffindor common room."

"What?" I asked, aghast. "What the bloody hell is wrong with some people! Why would they say that?"

"Probably makes them feel better about themselves." Dorcas' voice was more disdainful than I'd ever heard it before.

Emma nodded. "I think it has to do with Lily being a Muggleborn, and Head Girl. She's a model student, and people get angry that she does better than them despite whatever disadvantages she might face."

"Merlin." I said under my breath, still a bit shocked. "There was gossip at my old school and all, but I don't remember it being this.. vicious."

"Hey, Mary?" A male voice came from behind me. I turned around to see a Ravenclaw whom I vaguely recognized as Mary's boyfriend.

"Now's not a good time, Michael." she waved him off with a perfectly manicured hand. "Not in the mood."

"Yeah, uh, I just want to talk really quick." he seemed a little on edge. "Privately."

Mary exchanged looks with me, but stood up and followed him out of the hall.

It was only a moment later that Lily came back to sit next to us, looking a little exasperated. I noticed she still didn't have anything on her plate.

"He says he doesn't know anything about it." she reported. Then she added bitterly, "But it explains why some bloke congratulated him in the library."

"You think that's the truth?" Emma asked skeptically.

"He seemed sincerely sorry, and said he would tell people the truth if they ask." Lily shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't him that told everyone."

"I'm sorry you have to deal with those gits who obviously have nothing better to do." I said, and passed her a chicken-stuffed bun.

"Yeah." She accepted it rather disinterestedly, but took a bite anyway.

I felt bad for her but wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't used to watching from the sidelines as my friends got insulted. Back in my old life, it was usually one or two idiots who'd get on my nerves at a time, and I would _always_ get back at them, usually with the help of Uncle George and Uncle Ron's products. I'd never dealt with anything like this before though. This enemy was bigger, somehow. I'd never even talked to those people who jeered at Lily before, and there were so many of them. It was as though it wasn't a personal fight, as though Hogwarts was permeated by this attitude of hatred and contempt towards people like Lily.

In the tense silence that settled over the four of us, I once again glanced at the boys. James still wasn't there. Maybe he'd only come down to get food and left because he didn't want to see Lily?

"I'm going to go ask Remus something." I said to the girls. "I'll be back."

I half expected they'd question me further, but that wasn't the case. A few seconds later I was standing next to where the three boys were munching on a giant plate of fish and chips.

"Hey, so where's James?" I asked loudly in order to interrupt their conversation, mostly looking at Remus. I had no reason to expect Sirius would give me a straight answer, and Peter, well, I preferred to minimize contact with.

"Still sleeping, I guess." Remus replied.

I flicked my nails in frustration. Bloody hell. They didn't even know he had left their dorm? Ugh, I wanted to tell them, but couldn't because of the Map. "Are you sure you shouldn't check up on him?" I asked tersely.

"Look," Sirius spoke up, "We're his friends. We know when to help him, when he needs it. You, however, are not involved in this, and frankly, you need to bugger off."

I gave him an angry look. "I don't know why it's so hard for you to fathom this, but I happen to care about him too."

"But you've known him for all of one week." This came from Wormtail. His voice held none of the belligerence that Sirius's had, yet it pissed me off ten times worse. If there were no witnesses, I would have in all likelihood smacked him in his cowardly, treaturous mouth. I cared about James a thousand times more than he did!

Oh Merlin, how badly I wanted to say that out loud! But instead I stood there, my face growing red, digging my fingernails into my palms in the effort to keep control.

"If you want, Luna," Remus tried to diffuse the situation, seeing how angry I was. "You can go look for him in our dorm. You know where it is. He should be in there."

"Except he probably doesn't want to deal with you at the moment." Sirius quickly put in. "I doubt he wants to hear any excuses about how Evans isn't a_ctually _a total slag."

My mouth dropped open as I stared at him with incredulity. This was too much, on top of everything else. "Are you bloody _serious_? Are you- How can you say that!- just like all the other _bloody gits_- I thought- Are you _bloody fuckin' SERIOUS_?"

He gave a smug little arsehole smile. "I'm always Sirius."

At a loss for words, I picked up a half-eaten chicken bun from Pettigrew's plate and threw it at Black's stupid, git head.

And I would have stormed away and left it at that, but apparently my yelling had attracted my friends' attention, because Emma and Lily were there before I had a chance to leave.

"What's going on?" Lily asked, looking between me and Sirius, who was unphased by the bun and started eating it as soon as it bounced off his forehead and landed on the table. I pulled at her arm because there was clearly no point in further engaging with the idiot, but she resisted.

"Nothing, I just told her that you, Evans, are a slag. She seemed to be unaware of the fact."

Lily's face went ice cold and stoic, just like that morning, except this time I could tell she got a little bit glassy-eyed.

Emma's face, however, morphed into the worst, scariest stink-eye I had ever seen my life.

"You know what, Black?" Emma's voice was dangerously soft, but perfectly audible because all the students in a twenty-foot radius had stopped talking and were now staring at us. "She doesn't owe Potter _anything_, and she didn't do _anything wrong_. But too many people at this school are gits, just like you, and she was already having a bad day before you decided to grace us with your sexist, double-standard, opinion. Let me tell you. We've all seen you snog random girls around school more times than I care to count. And, even when perfectly sober, did you ever check to make sure some hopeless girl who happened to fancy you wasn't in the vicinity?" Her speech had been so calm up to this point, I jumped when she suddenly started yelling. "Let me guess.. NO, YOU DID NOT, YOU IGNORANT, SMUG, ARSEHOLE. So FUCK you, and your HYPOCRITE BULLSHITE."

At that, she grabbed Lily's hand and stormed right out of the Great Hall. I stomped after them, not wanting to miss out on the brilliant exit.

Once we were through the doors, I was about to congratulate Emma on that _amazing_ burn she delivered (I agreed with pretty much the whole thing, except for the Lily not owing James part), but as luck would have it, we ran right into James in the Entrance Hall.

Lily paid him zero attention, and while Emma kept up her quick pace, she turned her head and yelled back, "You're mate's a bloody git!"

"Sounds about right, I guess." I heard James' reply, having stopped right in my tracks once I reached him.

"James!" I said, relieved to see him functioning and fully intact. "There you are!"

He smiled at me. "Er, yeah, Remus said you wanted to see me or something?"

"Of course I did, after last night! How are you?" I tried to discern his emotions, any micro-expression that might happen to pass across his face.

He shrugged, looking strangely calm to my eyes. "Ok. Hungry, I guess?"

"Aren't you.. upset?" I was a little freaked out by his nonchalance, to be honest.

"I was at first, I suppose." Well, at least he wasn't completely bonkers. That part made sense.

"But now?" I prodded.

"I got over it." He said simply. "Time heals all wounds and all that."

"Well.. that was a bit quick. So you don't care that Lily snogged Andrew Bones?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Because first of all, I thought that you liked her? And second of all, you should go tell Black to stop being a prat about it."

James actually laughed.

"It's not funny!" He obviously had no idea how mean Sirius had been. "Lily's got enough on her plate without him tossing insults at her."

"Sorry." James said, quickly, but he was no longer meeting my eyes. "Hey, listen, lunch is almost over, and I'm _famished_. I'll see you, later, yeah?"

"Um, ok." I was disappointed, but didn't want to stop him from eating.

"See you." He gave me a goodbye clap on the shoulder and went through the doors.

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><p><strong>AN: Holy cow.. SO much negative energy in this chapter. Like.. Lily Luna is having a really bad time. I had to get angry just to write this. **

**I think slut-shaming is a really serious problem, (but not something I've had much very personal experience with). I've read too many Lily/James fanfictions growing up that had slutty, bitchy girls as antagonists. And I guess I think the slutty part isn't something women should be shamed for (unless there's cheating?) Well, I kinda wanted to address it. Don't know if I did it well, but I tried.**

**Well, tell me what you think! If all this bad drama is just bumming you guys out I'll try to tone it down, but there'll be a bit more since it's important to the story! Don't worry though, there are still pranks and fun times coming up soon, it won't be like this forever.**

**Please review! :)**


	28. Sweet Tarts

**A/N:** OMG guys, you all are amazing! Thanks so much for all the comments on the last chapter! I've been rather busy this semester, but I've had a back injury this past week so I have to skip tennis practice. That + procrastinating on homework = fanfiction time!

I see you all are excited for fem!Sirius, lol. I am too, but it'll still be a few chapters, due to certain developments in the plot. And if you're a Snape fan, don't worry! He'll definitely be around this week, though he might be acting a bit..off.. hehehe... I've already written some of the scenes he'll be in because I'm just so excited.

**End of last chapter:** Emma, Lily, and Lily Luna storm out of the Great Hall after Emma tells off Sirius for being a jerk (calling Lily a slut). Lily Luna stops to talk to James in the Entrance Hall. He tells her he's ok with seeing Lily kiss Andrew Bones the previous night. He says he wants to eat, and leaves.

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><p><strong>Chapter 28: Sweet Tarts<strong>

Lily and Emma were already there when I walked into our dormitory. The two of them sat upon Lily's bed, and it looked like Emma was rubbing something on the other girl's arms.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked Lily, approaching them. Initially I was wondering about what had just happened in the Great Hall, but when I came closer I noticed she had angry red scratches all over her arms, and even a few on her face.

"Yes." she replied, though her voice was higher than usual. "It was Socks. I picked her up, and- I don't know. She freaked out. Completely out of nowhere."

"Something weird has been up with that cat." Emma muttered, still dabbing at Lily with what I recognized as Essence of Murtlap.

"Hey, Lils," I began after a few moments of silence. "just so you know, Black was totally out of line talking to you like that. Like Emma said, he's a hypocrite."

"Honestly, I can't believe he had the nerve!" Emma exclaimed, angry again.

Lily said matter-of-factly, "He's a git. That's not news to me."

"I mean, I knew he was a git," Emma continued just as passionately, "but that was a whole another level for him!"

"He'll get what's coming to him." I reassured both of them, then grinned, checking up on the simmering cauldron beside Lily's trunk. "Seems the potion is coming along nicely." I preferred to look on the bright side of things.

Less than ten minutes later, the dormitory door flew open and Mary and Dorcas walked in, each with a bag in her arms. I wondered what they were carrying, but it became quickly apparent when Mary set hers on her bed with an exaggerated sigh, and took out a large eclair.

"Mary! Did Michael break up with you?!" Lily asked, sitting up and abandoning the book she'd been reading.

Mary nodded as Dorcas put the second bag down next to her. "Tosser."

"Mary always brings up a feast of deserts from the kitchens when someone dumps her." Emma explained to me.

"I swear, the house-elves _must_ put something in this." Mary said, licking the chocolate off her fingers. "Cheer-up Potion. Maybe Euphoria Elixir."

"I thought things were going well with you two." Lily was still concerned. "You were spending so much time together."

"Yeah, and that was a waste, wasn't it?" Mary rolled her eyes, before adding. "I mean, he was decent in bed- I guess that wasn't a waste- but still!" She paused to grab a muffin out of a bag and continued. "Wanker didn't even give me a proper reason! Just some rubbish about it being time to go our separate ways. You'd think he'd be able to come up with a better excuse than that, being in Ravenclaw and all."

"If he wasn't being honest with you, good riddance to him." Emma said.

"Mmh." Mary emphatically raised her half-eaten muffin in agreement.

"We brought enough sweets for everyone." Dorcas said as she looked through one of the bags. "Since none of us had a very good week, what with Luna getting her hair burnt off and all those bullies picking on Lily..."

"Oh, show them the pasties!" Mary exclaimed to Dorcas. Excitedly, she said, "You know how the elves have a tendency to make the same desserts over and over again? Well! For _once_, I found something new in their cupboards!"

"It's this one." Dorcas took out a long white box, and flipped off the lid to reveal a row of bite-sized, multicolored tarts. "They're all different flavors! Does anyone want any?"

"This one looks like chocolate and cream! That's mine." Mary was quick to snatch up the sweet.

Lily and I each picked one to eat, but Emma said she was deathly allergic to nuts and didn't want to risk eating a pecan. I happily took the pastry with a blueish-green jam.

Just as I swallowed a delicious bite of what was decidedly apple and blueberry, Mary exclaimed very loudly, "There's a huge pimple on my back!"

Clearly surprised at her own outburst, she stared at us, wide-eyed, with her hand over her mouth.

Lily let out a giggle. "I've got some pimple vanishing serum, if you'd like, Mar- I had a dream about snogging Potter!" Her own expression quickly changed to match Mary's. "Nightmare, I mean!" she tried to salvage the situation. "More like a nightmare!"

"I stepped on Socks's tail this morning!" Dorcas yelled over Lily's assurances about the nightmare. "I didn't mean too, of course! I made sure she was ok!"

Lily, however, couldn't respond to Dorcas's confession because she was already blurting out, "My sister looks like a horse and her fiance is a walrus!" She cringed once again, though Emma, who was watching the disaster unravel before her eyes, snickered a little.

Of course, I'd seen enough to suspect what was coming... I wanted to stop it, but Merlin! It escaped from my mouth like a particularly bad hiccup. "You're my grandmother!"

There was a second of silence as the girls looked at me in confusion, before Mary declared, "I peed myself a few weeks ago from laughing too hard." Apparently, this particular memory gave her an idea, because she ran to the bathroom and slammed the door. One last proclamation was heard - "I stuffed my bra with socks until fifth year!" - before the sounds of running water drowned her out.

Cursing myself for not thinking of that particular exit strategy, I was cornered. This was bad. All the important secrets I kept were going to be revealed because of some stupid jam tart. "My surname's Potter!" _Oh no. No no no_…

"What the hell did they put in yours?" Emma raised an eyebrow at me.

Good, she didn't find it believable. This gave me an idea. Shrugging and forcing a smile, I decided to spew out whatever nonsense happened to come to mind in between the compelled truths, "We're on the moon! Wormtail's a treacherous rat! My head's a Quaffle!"

"My father drinks a lot." Dorcas admitted miserably.

A silent moment.

"I'm scared of graduating because it isn't safe out there." Lily's voice was quiet now, though just as forced.

"You die before I'm born." My turn again. Why couldn't it have been something less morbid? I glanced out the window to avoid the others' frowns. "The sky is upside down."

Almost a minute passed without any more outbursts, and Emma broke the silence. "Well. I'm glad I passed those up."

No one replied. I, at least, was still too afraid to speak.

Lily slowly stood from her bed and walked to one of our bookshelves. She pulled out a large, red tome - an encyclopedia of potions - and began to flip through it.

The bathroom door opened and Mary came back out, looking angry. "If that was Black's idea of a prank, it went way too far. Who does he think he is, involving us in your stupid little spat and drugging us with truth potion?"

"_Veritas Expulsum_. Truth Spewing Draft." said Lily, showing us the page she found. "That must've been what they were spiked with." She read, "_The drinker is compelled to reveal the thoughts and feelings he or she has been concealing. Because this draft does not put the subject under the power of suggestion (see: Veritaserum), it is useless for interrogations. Usually the secrets revealed by the subject are unassociated and uncontrolled, although, through practicing mental discipline, one can learn to manipulate which information to reveal."_

"Sounds about right." agreed Emma. "Though I think we can all agree that Luna's must have been defective."

"Could have been Babbling Beverage." Lily confirmed.

Relieved that my plan to yell out nonsense worked, I nodded. "If it _was_ Sirius, I'm so sorry.. I didn't think he'd go there. It's against prank war etiquette to have friends be collateral damage!"

"Yeah, because Black's really one to follow etiquette." Mary rolled her eyes.

"You know what?" I stood up. "I'm going to go find that git and ask him to his face what he was thinking."

"Wait, before you go, can we agree on something?" Lily bit her lip anxiously.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Can we pretend that never happened? And never again speak of what was said?"

"I second!" Mary quickly raised one of her arms. Dorcas followed, and Emma nodded her agreement.

"Oh, so I'm supposed to simply forget the fact that you have erotic dreams about James?" I couldn't help but take my one opportunity to tease Lily about this. She blushed and opened her mouth to argue, but I stopped her. "Kidding, kidding! I won't mention it again if it bothers you that much. My lips are sealed."

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It didn't take long to find Sirius. He and the other Marauders were playing Exploding Snap in the common room.

I wasted no time in marching up to him. "Black! Were those bloody pasties your doing?"

Sirius casually turned to face me. "Pasties?"

"The tarts from the kitchens." I narrowed my eyes at him. Did he not know what I was talking about?

"Hm..." He smiled, apparently enjoying seeing me so annoyed while he kept me waiting. Shrugging, he said, "Maybe they are, maybe they aren't."

Git.

"Well if they were, that wasn't funny! The rest of the girls ate them too. This," I motioned between us with my finger and advanced toward him, towering over his sitting form, "is supposed to be between you and me. Personal. No collateral damage. That's the rule."

"Making up rules now, are we? Didn't anyone ever tell you rules are only made to be broken?" He smirked in his usual annoying and condescending manner.

"The girls didn't do anything to you. You can't target them!" That wasn't entirely true, since Lily was helping me with the Gender Switch Potion… but I would have figured out a way to do regardless, and he didn't need to know about that.

"I see why you're friends with Evans. Both of you have the annoying tendency to tell people what to do."

I took a deep breath. This was the second time in the course of an hour that Sirius was royally pissing me off. I had to restrain myself from just whipping my wand out and hexing the git, elaborate prank schemes be damned.

But thankfully, Remus came to my rescue. "Whatever pasties you're talking about, Luna, he had nothing to do with them."

"Hey!" Sirius glared at his friend. "Maybe I did. How would you know?"

"Because the house elves banned him, Wormtail, and Prongs from the kitchens last week." Remus told me.

"As though it was the first time!"

"Something tells me it will take them more than a week to forgive this one. Some of them almost drowned in all of that custard." Remus gave him a pointed look.

"Hey, that giant vat was a safety hazard! That wasn't _my_ fault. It was just waiting-!"

"_Padfoot_." James interrupted him with a groan. "It's been your turn for _five bloody minutes_. Just put a card down, you wanker."

After Sirius attempted to put down a card that I had the pleasure to watch explode in his hand, I slipped away back to the girls' dormitory.

I was glad at least one of the boys wasn't a total git. Merlin knows how long Black would have kept up his stupid act if Remus hadn't been there.

I suppose the tarts weren't Sirius's doing then, after all. But then, were they even meant for us? If they were sitting in the kitchen's dessert cupboards, couldn't anyone have picked them up? So who made them? And why?

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><p><strong>AN: **DUN DUN DUN. As you guys can see, things are escalating. Something's a-brewin'... Something's a-sirrin'... A storm's a-comin'! Lol. I'm kidding, things aren't going to get THAT dramatic yet. This is still the start of the story, after all.

BTW GUYS, I don't know if you've noticed, but I updated the cover! I just drew the new one today! It's got Lily Luna on it, with Lily and James in the background! If you want to check it out more up-close, there's a link in my profile to my deviantart page.

Please keep reading and reviewing! You guys are the best :D


	29. Consequences

**Chapter 29: Consequences**

At the end of the day, I had almost forgotten that I had agreed to meet Cassius Ackerley that night to do homework. However, I was reminded of it when Lily mentioned going to the library after dinner herself, to sort out some Heads paperwork.

When I walked into the large, bookcase-filled room, I found Cassius already in the middle of the assignment. Several pieces of parchment were spread out in front of him, and he was diligently writing out runes on one of them.

"Hey." I said, sitting down next to him.

"Oh, hi." He made room for the large runes dictionary I'd been holding and gave me his crooked-toothed smile. "Ready to translate some Etruskan?"

"Yeah, thanks for agreeing to help me out." I said, glad to see someone smiling again. Overall the girls and I hadn't had the best day. Telling them that it wasn't Sirius who had spiked the pasties didn't ease their annoyance or apprehension. Plus, the rumors people were throwing around about Lily were just as bad during dinner, and a few of the Slytherins insulted Mary and Emma as well when they tried to talk back.

Translating runes was almost a nice distraction from the stress I'd been feeling ever since I traveled through the dimension portal. I didn't usually feel that way about Runes homework, but since Cassius was there I didn't have any problems with getting stuck on some particular character. In fact, he knew the language so well, we only had to use the dictionary two times.

"I can't believe I'm already finished!" I said less than an hour later, setting down my quill. "You're the best. An honest life saver!" I beamed at him.

Cassius blushed and shrugged. "Glad I helped."

"Hey..." I paused, hesitating, unsure of whether I should take the risk. After a moment I decided it was worth it. Cassius seemed trustworthy enough. Even though I'd known the fourth year boy for only a week, the man I had called Professor Ackerley had been fair and honorable. I continued, "There's this book I have, written in runes. I've been trying to read it, but I'm having trouble with the majority. Any chance you'd have a look for me one of these days?"

"Of course!" he replied eagerly. "Although.. what language is it in?"

"I'm not actually sure…" I said honestly. "I'm familiar with a few of the runes. I think it's related to Medieval Futhark, but it's a bit hard to tell."

"Do you have it with you?"

"No." It was hidden in one of my drawers, under a pair of spare robes.

"Oh, well can you bring it to class then?"

That didn't seem like the best idea either, since I didn't want just anyone to see me carrying it around. What if someone read the title and recognized it as a book about jumping between dimensions?

"Actually, I'd rather keep this a bit private." I quickly thought of a good excuse. "I think it might be very expensive and I don't want other students to see me with it, you know?" Cassius seemed to understand. He nodded, even more excited. "How about we meet tomorrow, here, right before breakfast? The library's open early, and there'll be hardly anyone here, right? You can take a quick look at it then."

"Alright!" agreed Cassius.

I thanked him again before we both packed up our things, and he left.

I, however, didn't head out the library door as he did. Instead, I walked past several bookshelves in the direction Lily had gone when the two of us had walked in together.

And sure enough, I soon heard her voice.

"What do you mean you aren't coming tomorrow?" she said, her voice angry but shushed since she didn't want to yell in a library.

James' tone of voice however, was quite normal, almost relaxed. "I _mean_ I am not showing up. Won't be present. _Shall not be in attendance_."

I stood still, hidden from view by the shelves. Eavesdropping hadn't been my plan; I was simply going to try to have a quick friendly chat with them both, in attempt to break any tension. However, they were clearly arguing, and I wanted to know what about, so I decided it was better to not interrupt.

"You can't just ditch rounds because you feel like it, Potter! They're part of your duty as Head Boy!" Lily was getting annoyed.

"I made other plans." James said, still seemingly nonchalant.

There was a pause before Lily declared, "I'll report you to Dumbledore."

James' voice grew colder. "Will you?"

Lily didn't back down. "Yes. Since you don't care what I think, perhaps you'll care when he takes your badge."

"You _would _find a way to make this harder for everyone."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well the obvious solution here is that you find a replacement. That's why I'm giving you notice a whole day in advance." Lily scoffed at this. James continued, his words getting more frosty. "But no. Of course. It's not a surprise that your first reaction is to tattle to the professors. You love acting all high and mighty about _duties_, getting people in trouble for stupid shite." He gave a rather mean chuckle. "Remember when you said I make a horrid Head Boy and I don't deserve the honor? Well, perhaps you should take a good look at yourself, Evans. Take a good, bloody look at yourself."

As I stood still for a moment, in shock at hearing James give such a speech, Lily suddenly stormed past me, her face stony.

"Lily-" I tried to stop her. I was slightly embarrassed at getting caught listening in, but it wasn't the worst of my worries right at that moment.

But she didn't stop long enough for me to try and calm her. "I'm not in the mood, Luna." she said curtly, before walking off.

I took a moment to collect myself before turning the corner of the bookshelves to see James. I furrowed my face even more when I saw that he had gone back to doing some rather boring-looking paperwork.

"James?" I asked, tentatively.

"Oh, hey Luna." He looked up at me with a smile.

"I.. I heard you and Lily talking just now." I admitted.

"Yeah, she just stormed off." James replied. "Left me to finish the rest of tonight's paperwork by myself. How very kind of her, right?"

"I would have done the same if you said to me what you just said to her." I said pointedly. "What was that all about?"

James didn't seem very concerned. "I'm just fed up with her, I suppose."

"That's no reason to be such a downright prick."

"I didn't say anything worse than what she says to me all the time." James shrugged.

I couldn't believe this. "Well that was horribly counterproductive to getting her to go out with you!"

James looked at me in all seriousness, finally. "Well maybe I'm not trying to do that anymore."

My eyes widened. "But you like her! I thought you liked her! Even loved her -maybe!"

"Loved her?" James gave another cold laugh that sounded horribly uncharacteristic of him. "Did I give you that impression? Hah, well I guess I can't blame you. I did consider calling it that myself, for a while. Only shows how pathetically idiotic I was being, doesn't it? It was nothing but a stupid obsession, I've come to realize."

"A stupid obsession?" I repeated dumbly.

"Yes. I suppose I understand why I found her attractive. She's a good-looking bird, I'll give her that. But now I see that that only makes her personality even more of a tragedy."

"What-!" I exclaimed, my mouth hanging open. "How can you-! Is this stupid bullshite something Sirius managed to convince you of? Because honestly you sound like a downright arsehole, just like him! _Her personality even more of a tragedy-_! I can't believe you would say that!"

The frost crept into his voice again, and this time directed at me. "No, no one convinced me into this. I happened to have a few realizations on my own. And frankly, you need to butt out of this because it's none of your business. I don't know why you're so crazy about the idea of Evans and me dating, but no one wants that to happen anymore, so you should just _drop it_."

"Just drop it?" I sat there, stunned once again. I couldn't _just drop it_! Apart from the fact that he and Lily would make an amazing, happy couple if they just got over their stupid prejudices, there was the fact that a whole lot of my family would never exist if the two of them failed to fall in love! Not to mention Voldemort would likely triumph and rule over the wizarding world.

"James," I swallowed my annoyance at being called crazy and practically begged him, I was so scared, "Just a few days ago you told me about how you thought she was kind, selfless, and brave. You said she helps people. You said that you like how she has a passion for life. You said something about singing and dancing, and sugar quills. Did you forget all that? Is this about last night's party? Or something else?"

James had a strange look on his face, and it took me a second to realize that it was disgust. "It doesn't matter. Just drop it, Porter. Evans and I aren't going to happen. Accept that."

"At least tell me _why_ you changed your mind?" I asked, desperate.

"Like I said, I've made realizations." He was growing angrier.

"What kind of realizations?" My voice was soft, still with a note of pleading.

"The kind where I've opened my eyes to what a huge, annoying, prissy bitch Lily Evans is." James replied. "The kind that have been a long time coming."

"You can't..." I was trying not to cry. "How can you say that?"

_Did all this happen because of my party? My stupid welcome party?_ The back of my throat was prickling. _Did I manage to completely destroy everything already? Did I just singlehandedly make my dad, my future self, and my brothers unborn, just by existing and not minding my own business like I should have been doing this past week? Did I just personally become responsible for all the death and torture and pain that my own father had stopped from happening by defeating the Dark Lord?_

James wasn't paying attention to me. He had gone back to his paperwork. He didn't look up as I got up and left the library in a daze.

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><p><strong>AN: **So, things are bad. And James is being a jerk. But there's a reason for it, we'll see.

Please leave reviews.


	30. Accusations

**A/N: **Hi guys! I just suck at updating regularly, eh? I really wanted to work on this but I had school, and then finals :( But now it's summer, so here's the next chapter! :)

Everyone who left me comments for the last one, YOU ARE AWESOME THANK YOU SO MUCH. :D It means a lot that people care enough to do that. It seems that you guys want more of the character stuff. I realize some of the plot seems to be dragging a bit, so I'll try to speed things up and add more drama between the main characters.

This is my first time writing a multi-chapter story, so I'm afraid I'm going to bumble things up because I don't really know what I'm doing… I mean, I love planning plotlines and stuff, but this is the first time I'm attempting to write one out. I already have a ton of revisions planned, but I'm pretty sure everyone will be super annoyed if I stop writing new chapters now to fix the old ones, so I'm leaving that as a future project. (that includes adjusting chapters for length and to have something really interesting/important happen in each one). I want to at least finish part 1 (until Christmas) for this thing before I get into that whole mess of revising.

A special thanks to Mavis for the super long review! To answer your main question, LL does realize she's in a different dimension so she'll continue to exist if Lily and James don't get together. But she wants Harry to exist in this one too because the war was barely won in her own world and the prophecy implies that Harry or Neville (who wasn't marked as an equal, so he's iffy) are the only ones who can defeat Voldemort. And to be honest I try not to stress too much about the plot being watertight because the books themselves have a lot of plot holes if you look hard enough. If I were writing my own, original story it'd be different, but this is a fanfiction in which there are things such as magic, fate, and life after death, so things are a bit skewed, I think. Oh, and you're spot on about Cassius, hehe :) And I won't comment about the tarts yet.

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><p><strong>Chapter 30: Accusations<strong>

"Excellent!" I grinned at Lily as she ladled the Gender Switch Potion into a bottle. We'd worked on it for the better half of our Sunday, but after much measuring, chopping, and stirring it was finally ready.

"Remember, each drop of it lasts for about an hour, but it has a delayed effect. He'll start feeling it thirty minutes or so after consumption." Lily told me as she handed me the pinkish liquid.

"Right.." I said, thinking. "Does he have to eat it? Or would it work if he ingests it some other way?"

"Other way?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Well I can't exactly slip it into his drink when I don't even eat meals with him. And we're in a prank war. He's not dumb enough to eat any mysterious pasties lying around. I've got limited options here." Lily slowly nodded, understanding. "So I'm thinking… what if he inhales it?"

"I suppose that might work…" she smiled a little at how much I was thinking this through. "It's been done with other transfiguring potions. But I think it makes it more, um, potent?"

"_Potent_ meaning?"

"The effects might be slightly exaggerated."

I didn't need to contemplate further. "Doesn't sound like a problem." I said, before grabbing a rag to clean off our work table.

Although I didn't catch up on homework nearly as much as I'd wanted to, it still felt like a very productive day. In addition to completing the potion and working on a bit of Transfiguration, I had snuck off before breakfast to go see Cassius, as we'd planned. I showed him the book, and thankfully he didn't seem to find it suspicious that I was so interested in it. But maybe, that's because he couldn't actually read it.

"It looks like it says.. something about traveling?" he had muttered as he closely examined the first few pages. "This must be written in some sort of rare dialect. I only recognize a few words as well."

"Oh, well thanks for trying to help anyway." I told him, keeping the disappointment out of my voice.

But Cassius didn't seem at all put out. "This must be a really rare book…" He looked at it with wonder, before glancing up at me with hope in his eyes."Would you mind showing this to my uncle- the one who owns the antique shop? I bet he could help! He's a bit of an expert."

"Are you sure he'd agree?" I asked with some hesitation. Asking Cassius's uncle for help would mean letting in another person on the secret of the book.

"Are you kidding, he'd _love_ to see this! I'm sure he'd come here himself just to take a look at a book like this."

"Well…" The offer was tempting. "Sure, alright."

"Great." the young boy grinned. "I'll owl him right after breakfast. I'm thinking we can all meet up on the next Hogsmeade trip? There's always one before Halloween, and that's in three weeks."

Though I still had no idea how to read the book, I was one step closer to figuring it out. The fact that I might get back home sooner rather than later cheered me up a little. I missed my friends and my old life. Although this whole adventure to the past was a cool experience and all, I felt like I didn't quite belong. Not to mention the ever-present anxiety that had settled in the pit of my stomach and stirred unpleasantly whenever I saw James.

I think he was still annoyed with me from the previous night, because the one time I caught his eye during meals that day he didn't give me any acknowledging nods or smiles, like before. He simply looked away, his expression bored. Not to mention he wasn't stealing glances at Lily anymore.

"Why do you keep staring at Potter?" Mary asked me when Lily and I joined everyone for dinner, after completing the potion.

"He's just acting.. weird. Don't you think?" I said apprehensively.

"Is he?" Mary glanced down the table, to where James was smiling at something and messing with Pettigrew's hair. "Looks pretty normal to me."

"I saw him get into a bit of a spat earlier today." Dorcas mused. "I was outside helping Hagrid with some weeding, and it looked like James hexed this Hufflepuff. Poor boy couldn't stop tap dancing, and he was right by the lake so he fell. Hagrid had to drag him out of the water, all wet."

Lily's eyes flashed in anger. "I still can't believe that git is Head Boy. He's horrible. What was Dumbledore thinking?"

For once, I paid no attention to Lily's anger. "He hexed someone? Why?"

"I was too far away at that point to hear anything." Dorcas said. "So I really don't know."

Emma shook her head in disapproval as she chewed on a crumpet. "It's not like he's never done that before. Potter's always had a bit of a mean streak. Still, I hadn't noticed him doing anything that horrible since he'd got the Head badge."

"I don't know what you mean." Lily cut in. "I heard he pranked the Slytherins only last week. And yesterday he canceled patrols on me. I'm really not that surprised." She huffed.

Just then, two Slytherin boys were walking past us, having finished with dinner a bit early. Overhearing Lily's comments, one of them stopped and bent over to talk in her ear.

"Like to get feisty, don't you?" he said taunted, making her jump. "We all know how you really feel about Potter, how you dream about him."

The Slytherin's companion laughed and added, in a very high voice. "_Ohhh Potter, you're such a git, kiss me Potter! This is such a nightmare, mmmm_." He fake-moaned and made kissy faces.

Lily was speechless as she blushed a deep red all the way to the roots of her hair.

"Don't you two have anything better to do with your time?" Mary was the quickest to come to Lily's defense. "Say- for example- go throw yourselves off the Astronomy Tower? It would be such a benefit to society! True altruism, it'd be."

"You're one to talk about benefits to society." The first Slytherin sneered again, turning his attention to Mary. "Heard you're one of those freaks. _Got a thing for the little ones_." He enunciated, a wide grin spreading on his face, his bright blue eyes glinting. "I almost feel sorry for those young Gryffindor boys. They're not safe sleeping in that tower with you around, are they?"

Mary's jaw dropped open. "What?" she said stupidly.

"He's saying you're into the underaged kids." His git of a friend explained slowly. "I mean, I can understand why. You've got lots to relate on: you're much closer on an intellectual level… you both have to wear diapers…" The Slytherin laughed, flashing his blindingly white teeth.

To her credit, Mary mustered up her composure enough to blurt out, "Shut up. I don't know what you're talking about."

The one with blue eyes smirked. "Don't play dumb with us McDonald. We know. Everyone knows. Why do you think your idiot of a Ravenclaw boyfriend broke up with you?" And at that, the two boys shared a malicious smile and walked away without waiting for a reply.

The five of us remained eerily quiet for a moment. Lily stared down at her plate, her face almost hidden by a curtain of auburn hair, while Mary glared ahead somewhere over my right shoulder, her eyebrows knit tightly together.

"That was so out of line." Emma was the first to speak.

"They're Slytherins." snarled Lily. "I've come to expect that from them. The question is, how did they know? About the nightmare. And about Mary's accident."

An awkward silence fell between us again.

"I didn't say a word." Emma reassured the two girls.

"Me neither!" I added hurriedly, and Dorcas shook her head, wide-eyed.

"Where were you this morning, Luna?" Lily suddenly asked.

"I-" I stuttered, shocked at her question. "I had some questions about Ancient Runes work. I met up with a friend. Why are you asking-?"

"Because that's what you did last night, at the library. You told me later that you finished your work, and that's why you came to see me and Potter." This was true, I talked to her about it when I saw her later that night. I wanted to calm her down so she wouldn't be so upset with James, but of course it turned out to be a lost cause.

"Well I went again this morning. I had follow up questions." I told her. I was really uncomfortable with the context of this conversation… Did Lily really believe I had something to do with the gossip?

"Yeah, but someone told, didn't they?" Mary suddenly jumped in, angrily. Her voice lowered, "How else would they have known about the nightmare and that.. I had an accident?"

"Look, I agree, it was strange they said that…" I trailed off, my throat getting tight. "But it still could have been a coincidence?"

Both Mary and Lily were looking at me as though I was an enemy. Emma's eyebrows were furrowed and she also stared at me through narrow eyes. Dorcas alone seemed more afraid than suspicious.

My breathing got shallow, and my voice raised an octave. "I didn't say anything…You have to believe me."

"Look Luna," Lily began in a business-like tone. "The facts are that we haven't known you for that long. And this is the first time something like this has ever happened. If Emma or Dorcas were going to break my confidence, they would have done it a long time ago. I trust them, for good reason."

"But I didn't tell anyone anything! It wasn't me." I said desperately, aware of how unconvincing I sounded. But I was too shocked and upset to come up with any better arguments.

"I've got a Sneakoscope." Dorcas suddenly said. "My brother gave it to me. It's up in our dorm. If Luna's lying, it should be able to tell."

The walk up to Gryffindor Tower wasn't pleasant, because it was clear Lily and Mary were much readier to believe in my guilt than my innocence. Although I offered to have Cassius testify that I was, indeed, in his presence that morning, the girls didn't seem to care very much. Cassius was even more of a stranger to them than I was, and in any case, that didn't prove that I hadn't told anyone their secrets.

"It's only logical, Luna," Emma said as we entered through the Fat Lady. "Someone told, it's pretty obvious. And you've disappeared off to talk to Potter, or go on a broomride, or whatever, more than any of us this week. Not to mention with the drugged tarts… you just happened to pick the one with Babbling Beverage instead of the Truth Spewing Draft! I thought that was a bit strange!"

"What, you think I planned this? That I had some elaborate scheme to drug the four of you and tell the school your secrets?" I asked angrily, getting fed up with being on the defensive. This was so dumb! Maybe it was one of them that had lied and gossiped! I could rule myself out for sure, after all. "And I wasn't the only one not spewing out truths, if I remember correctly!" I yelled at Emmeline. "You didn't eat any tarts either!"

"I'm just trying to look at the facts." Emma coldly replied. "I'm not saying it was you for sure. Just that a lot of things point to that."

"In that case, I was framed." I snarled at her, temper rising. Was it just me, or was she trying too hard to be nonchalant while implicating me?

"Hey!" Lily butt in. "How about we stop arguing about this until we see what the Sneakoscope says?"

We all walked into our dormitory and I sat down on the window seat not looking at anyone while Dorcas searched through her trunk for the Sneakoscope.

"Got it!" she finally exclaimed, and handed me a small, red and blue box. There was faint whistling coming from inside. I opened it, to see the device. It looked a lot more like a children's toy than the one I had back at home. Dad made sure that James, Al, and I had the best Dark magic sensing instruments out there. He wanted us to be very aware, since being Harry Potter's children made the three of us rather high-profile.

"It's very sensitive." Dorcas said. "That's why I usually don't have it out. It has a small range though." she told me before backing away.

I stared at the stupid thing, before setting it on the floor in front of me. Like a spinning top, a Sneakoscope needed a flat surface to work correctly.

The thing began whistling and spinning rather obnoxiously.

"Well, one of us has been lying and concealing things." Lily stated the obvious.

Unfortunately, I had suspected this might be the case. Of course I had been lying to them! I had a lot to keep secret… But it was all for very good reason. And none of it was with ill intent. I had hoped the model of Sneakoscope Dorcas owned was meant for short-term deceptions rather than long-term ones. The latter was a lot less common.

"I don't think there's anything left to say." Mary glowered at me.

"I didn't tell anyone your secrets." I said, my gaze set on Lily. Despite her anger at me, I still felt a certain kinship towards her. After all, we were family. And her eyes looked so much like my dad's, except younger and more feminine. The hue of emerald green was exactly the same.

But the Sneakoscope kept whistling and spinning.

"I think that's enough." Dorcas said quietly as she picked the Sneakoscope off the floor and took the box it came in out of my hands. She gave me a very sad look as she put it back in her trunk.

Apart from her, none of the girls would meet my eyes, and they all left me to myself. Clearly the conversation was over.

I felt a strange sort of numbness as I leaned back against the giant white bear I had convinced Lily to keep several days ago. I burrowed my face in it. It seemed the only friendly thing in the world, a token from a lost timeline in which I hadn't royally screwed things up with my existence. A piece of the puzzle that was Lily and James' relationship before my stupid "welcome party" came along and swept all the puzzle pieces off the table and into the rubbish bin.

Mary and Lily went to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Emma turned to read some old book she kept on her nightstand. Dorcas was on her bed petting Socks, who'd jumped onto her lap, purring.

Feeling miles apart from everyone I looked out the window, into the pale blue twilight. I'd never been so alone.

I felt an overwhelming prickling in the back of my throat. Great. Now I was going to cry in front of them?

I hated the thought of that, so I jumped up, and picked up the Potions book into which I had tucked in the Marauders' Map last time I used it.

"Where are you going?" Dorcas asked softly as I made for the door.

"Out." I said, not really caring to come up with any excuses.

"Don't leave the Tower! We're not supposed to be out alone after dark. It's not safe, remember?" But I was already out the door before she finished. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if any some dumb wanker tried to attack me just then. I was in the mood to potentially send someone to the hospital wing. Honestly, it would have been a real pleasure.

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><p><strong> AN:** For once, I can promise the next chapter will be posted soon! Like, next week. I've already got a rough draft written :)

Thanks for reading and reviewing guys. You're the bestest :D


	31. Upset

**Chapter 31: Upset **

I rushed down the stairs and through the Gryffindor common room, keeping my head down so that no one would talk to me or see the tears that had started to slip past my cheeks. I wasn't even sure of where I was going, just that I wanted to be alone. Well, more than anything I wanted to see my old friends again- my _real_ friends- and cry into Emily's shoulder. But of course that was impossible.

Trying hard to keep my breath steady, I exited the portrait hole and turned right, finally slowing my pace now that no one was around. A sob escaped from my lips, but I kept walking until I reached the end of the corridor, where there was an alcove with a large window, and suits of armor on either side. I stopped there, feeling it was a more private place to cry than in the middle of the hall. It even had a small bench, rather hidden from view, so I settled down and conjured a handkerchief to wipe at my eyes and my nose.

I had wanted so badly the girls to like me, and to make new friends! Back at home it had always come to me effortlessly. I had had so much family...and not to mention friends of the family. At school, everyone knew who I was, and, I think, most people liked me. But _here_, I realized, I was a stranger. I hadn't hit me in such a profound way until now because at least I thought I had Lily and James… They meant a lot to me, of course. They were my family, and that bond means something even if you've only just met the person for the first time in your life, I felt. But it didn't mean anything to them, did it? How could it, when they had no idea…?

To James I was just an annoyance, sticking her nose into his private business. And to Lily I was something even worse: a liar, a gossip, a _backstabber_. My breath hitched again at the thought. I couldn't believe she'd think that of me. It wasn't fair, when I was doing all that I could to help! I wasn't the enemy! Someone else was.

Maybe it's Emmeline. I wiped at my tears, all of a sudden angry. After all, she hadn't been victim to anything either! Or Dorcas! Sure, she seemed innocent, but maybe it was an act! I couldn't trust anyone, could I?

Suddenly, the window right next to me swung open, nearly hitting me in the head.

I jumped up, my eyes wide, but my wand already gripped tight in my hand.

To my great surprise- and, it seemed, to his, too- I found myself looking at Sirius Black.

I was so shocked, I momentarily forgot to be embarrassed about my red, watery eyes.

"Er," Sirius was the first to recover, "what are you doing here?"

"What-?" my voice came out uncharacteristically high after the crying, so I cleared my throat before continuing, "What am _I_ doing here? What the hell are _you_ doing _out there_? We're on the seventh floor!" I was rather bewildered. Figures he'd be acting like _I'm_ the weird one, when he's popping through seventh floor windows, invading people's private alone time!

"There's a ledge out here." he explained, apparently shocked into honesty. "I was having a smoke."

"Oh." I said sharply, and a small silence followed in which he looked at me rather expectantly. Unable to stand his questioning gaze, I blurted out, "Well. I was just.. studying this tapestry." I pointed to said work of art, depicting a prancing unicorn, which hung across from the bench.

"Right." Sirius scoffed and gave me a look, before completely climbing in and shutting the window latch. "You're a strange one, you know? Reading books in dark broom cupboards, studying unicorn tapestries past curfew…"

I wasn't in the mood for his stupid jokes.

"Whatever, Black. I don't have to answer to you." I said tartly before rushing past him, not meeting his eyes.

"A bit late to go galavanting out on your own, isn't it?" he called after me.

I didn't answer him and kept going.

"Oi! You hear what I said?" He shouted at my retreating back.

"Piss off!" I yelled at him without turning around.

I'd hoped that would get him to leave me alone, but I soon heard his hurried footsteps following me.

"Look, I know you're new here. I don't know if your friends told you, but it's not the best idea to be out by yourself this time of night." he said, catching up.

"Oh, they told me." I snarled, picking up pace even more. "And they're not my friends." I couldn't help adding bitterly.

"Woah, I sense some girl drama going down." Sirius chuckled.

I stopped right in my tracks, giving up on trying to outrun the asshole. I was tall for a girl, but his legs were obviously no shorter than mine. "Look, I'm only going to ask you nicely just once. This is none of your business, so sod the fuck off." I glared daggers at him.

For a second he looked like he was about to make some sort of dumb joke, but then all of a sudden his smirk slid off of his face. I tried to keep scowling at him but the unexpected concern in his eyes threw me off guard. _Great. So he noticed._ I kept my face as stoic as possible, even if it was too late to hide the fact that I had been crying.

"I disagree. It is my business." he ended up saying, for once serious. "You're new. You're going to get lost in the castle if you storm off like this, not to mention that it's not safe for anyone to be out alone right now."

"I'll be just fine." I barely held back from throwing the fact that I knew the castle just as well as he did, if not better, in his dumb face. "I've got a good sense of direction."

"That's not going to help." the git argued. "The staircases here change. So do the doors."

"Oh, I'm quite aware of what the doors in this castle can do." I said cryptically, thinking back to the one I had taken a week prior to get into this whole mess.

Thankfully Sirius didn't read into that. A familiar joking tone had began to creep back into his voice. "If our darling Head Girl finds out I let you go exploring all on your own at this hour, she'll have my skin. I'm not too thrilled at the idea of being the last to see you alive. People have noticed we're not on the best terms. They'll suspect something, and I don't want to be framed for your murder."

"I think it's your own murder you have to worry about." I snapped, pulling out my wand. I was in no mood for jokes. I just wanted to be left alone.

Sirius, surprisingly, didn't reach for his own. He eyed mine warily. "Look, I don't want to fight you. I've only just managed to get rid of the last of the glitter from that time on Wednesday."

"Good." I replied. "Then we've agreed? You'll sod off?"

Sirius eyed me warily some more, taking his time. He sighed, leaning casually against a wall. "Want a smoke?" was his only reply.

"No, I don't want a smoke." I spat back at him. "It's an awful, disgusting habit, and I don't want any part of it."

"Suit yourself." the boy shrugged.

I hurried off again, hoping he wouldn't follow me, but, of course, no such luck.

"Can I ask where we're going?" he asked as we descended one of the main staircases.

"_I'm_ going out for a fly." I replied. I hadn't really made the conscious decision for it until then, but I realized that's where my feet were taking me.

But as soon as I said it, Sirius stopped dead, and I was forced to do so as well because he grabbed onto my wrist. "You can't go outside the castle. Not tonight."

I yanked my wrist back and opened my mouth for a retort, when I saw something in his face that stopped me. It was almost like...fear.

And I realized what day it was. When I was in the library the other night, the moon had shone bright through the windows. Almost full...

I nodded slowly, meeting his gaze again. "Alright." I said, softening. "I'll stay in tonight."

Sirius nodded, and in the following silence I felt some of my anger deflate like a giant hot air balloon. The feeling left behind a great emptiness, similar to the one I had felt earlier when I pressed my face into the white teddy's fur. It was the knowledge that I was standing against something much worse than a lone enemy… It was a helplessness in the face of something I couldn't even quite understand. Something unknowable and undefeatable.

Being back in the past, I felt like I had so many responsibilities. I had to make sure this happened, or that that didn't. But did it really matter how much I tried to help? In reality, I was just as powerless at the hands of fate as all the people I had tried to "push in the right direction." I was being thrown about like driftwood by the turbulent tides along with everyone else. I thought I could fix Lily and James's problems, but I couldn't even fix my own. All I could do was create more. I felt so stupid for even trying.

The tears returned, against my will. I avoided Sirius's gaze and looked down at the carpeting that covered the stone floor of the hallway. It was worn down from the hundreds of feet that must have walked up and down the school corridor during the day.

Suddenly, I heard brisk footsteps. They were close, but not yet rounding the nearest corner.

"Patrols." whispered Sirius harshly, before grabbing my wrist again, dragging me down the hall, and through a small doorway which I knew led to the clocktower. It was dim, unlike the main corridors, and it was the ideal place to hide. We pressed ourselves against the cold walls as the footsteps behind the archway passed by. I didn't dare glance out to see who it was.

But soon enough it was quiet and we were safe again.

"Thank Merlin." breathed Sirius. "I'm already serving three detentions this week. I didn't fancy a fourth."

I gave a small laugh, relieved at the fact that we didn't get caught, and that he wasn't teasing me about the crying.

"May I ask how long you plan for this little adventure to last?" Sirius asked suddenly. "I sort of have plans tonight. Someone's expecting me."

"Oh." I realized what he was talking about. He probably had to go meet up with James and Peter before joining Remus for his transformation. "...Right. Sorry. I guess I could go back now. I just don't want to because my dormmates are rather upset with me at the moment."

Sirius nodded slowly. "Can I ask what they're angry about?"

I hesitated, feeling a bit weird about confiding in Sirius, of all people. But had already seen me upset, so I guess the damage was done.

"They think I told the whole school their secrets, and lied to them about not being the source of the gossip." I said rather flatly. "But I didn't. I really don't know how those dumb Slytherins knew…"

Sirius's eyes widened. "Are you talking about what they've been saying- that Evans has romantic dreams about Prongs? Ones in which they snog?"

I sighed. Great. So he knew as well. "That's really besides the point." I said a bit of my temper returning.

A grin spread over his face. "Well what do you know. The timing's rather unfortunate, but it seems Evans has the hots for Prongsie-boy after all."

"I never said that." I replied sharply at his flippant response. Plus, I was annoyed that I had just unintentionally confirmed the rumor. Even if Lily was angry at me, I still didn't want to violate her privacy. If anything, I wanted to prove her wrong for thinking something so awful about me. "Her primary emotion towards him is still hate, you know."

"Oh, trust me, Firehead, I wasn't suggesting anything otherwise." Sirius said reassuringly, still smirking.

"Can you not use that dumb nickname?"

"Now that's asking too much." The git chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, but otherwise didn't reply. I don't know why I even tried. I guess it felt like he was taking me seriously for once, but I should've known that Black's compassion is a limited resource.

"You're really taking it badly, eh?" Sirius asked. "The girls being mad at you."

"Of course I'm taking it badly!" I couldn't help raising my voice. "They were my friends! They're my roommates! How am I supposed to face them, knowing they think I would sink so low, that I would betray them! All I wanted was to make friends here- and I thought that I did- but now everything is just crumbling down. They hate me! And honestly I don't know who to trust either. Everything is just _fucked_ up." I crossed my arms, hugging myself tight.

It took a moment for Sirius to start speaking, and when he did it was in a strange tone of voice I hadn't heard him use before. It was reminiscing, but with a dark undertone. "Last year, I did something truly idiotic. I got carried away with a prank, as I thought of it. I wanted a laugh, and ended up putting my friends in danger. I messed up, and they had to pay the price."

He paused, looking away through a window, where the night had turned dark and silvery by the light of the moon. I knew better than to ask him what he had done.

"Thankfully, no one got hurt physically." he continued, his eyes staring out into the distance. "Still, James and Remus wouldn't talk to me for almost a month. In the end, Peter convinced them to hear my apology. But the time leading up to that was hellish, to say the least."

"Sorry." I said tentatively.

"Don't be. I deserved it." stated Sirius, finally looking at me again. The light of the moon, and that of the torches from main corridor, cast sharp shadows across his young face. They drained it of its own color, so that half of him was painted silvery blue, and just a sliver of orange colored his other cheek.

I realized that he was talking again. "My point is that friends forgive. No matter how badly you fuck up, or they think you fuck up. If they're really your friend, eventually they will listen, and you'll work things out."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. I suppose so." I replied in a hollow voice. I couldn't look him in the eye anymore because all I could think of was what I knew and he didn't- that Peter Pettigrew wasn't really his friend. And who knew, maybe my dormmates weren't my friends either.

"Look, I've got somewhere to be." I saw him glance out the window again. "I'll walk you back to the Tower."

"Right." I said in the same hollow tone, my voice barely audible. I realized I was exhausted, and I didn't protest against his suggestion.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey everyone, I hope you all liked this chapter since we FINALLY get to see Lily Luna and Sirius be a little more sincere with each other. I'm just happy to write Sirius as a slightly more complex character. But also exhausted from editing this and trying to make sure it sounds ok, ugh.**

**A special thanks to SailorOwls, Rs223, SSB, and GrossGirl18 leaving such awesome reviews last chapter! You guys are super cool and I love hearing your thoughts. **

**Please review and I'll keep writing! :) (or don't, and I'll keep writing anyway, but then I'll be sad)**

**9Cats**


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